February 14 In History
842: Charles the Bald and Louis the German swear the Oaths of Strasbourg in the French and German languages. The two monarchs were grandsons of Charlemagne making them cousins. Charles, like the other Carolingian monarchs he refused to enforce the anti-Jewish decrees promulgated by the Church. This was a matter of economic reality; not a an example of philo-Jewishness.
1014: Henry II who was already King of Germany and King of Italy was crowned as Emperor of the Holy Roman Emperor. The first serious persecution of the Jew in Germany began at the start of the 11th century under the reign of Henry. Among other things, Henry issued a decree expelling the Jews from Mayence because they refused to be baptized. Some of Henry’s enmity towards the Jews may be traced back to the conversion of Wecelinus, the chaplain to Duke Conrad to Judaism. Conrad was a relative of Henry’s and Christian nobility did not take kindly to such changes. The poet Simon ben Isaac and Gershom ben Judah both composed dirges to mark this sad turn of events.
1076: Pope Gregory
VII
excommunicates Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor. This dispute between Pope and Royal Ruler was one of many struggles that ranged between Princes of the Church and Temporal Princes for political power. This one did not involve the Jews but it did affect them. For his time, Henry treated his Jewish subjects well. He challenged the anti-Semitism of the many church officials by claiming his Jewish subjects as “belonging to our Chamber.” In other words they came under his jurisdiction and protection. Seeing the economic benefit of allowing the Jews to play an active role in his realm, Henry exempted the Jews from “custom duties in imperial towns and they enjoyed trade and travel privileges throughout his empire.” History may remember the penitent Henry shivering in the snows outside the Papal Palace. For the Jews, he is was a bright beacon in world growing ever darker under the menace of crusader mobs.
1130: “The Jewish Cardinal” Pietro Pierleone was elected Pope under the name of Anacletus II. The Church counts him as one of the anti-popes. According to at least one source, Anacletus II was a member of one of the most powerful and wealthiest senatorial families in Rome. At the same time, the family was reported to have Jewish roots and had supposedly amassed its fortune through money lending. Apparently the Church’s difficulty in knowing how to deal with Jewish converts was not just a 20th century phenomenon.
1349: In
Strasbourg
, a riot ensued in the town after corn prices fell. The Jews were accused (despite the protests of the city council) of a conspiracy. The entire Jewish population (2000) were dragged to the cemetery and burned to death. Only those who accepted Christianity were allowed to live. A new council was elected which voted that Jews could not return for 100 years and their property and possessions were divided among the burghers. Twenty years later, the Jews were readmitted.
Or
1349: In one of the first and worst pogroms in pre-modern history several hundred Jews were publicly burned to death in Strasbourg and the rest were expelled from the city. “Since the spring of 1348, pogroms against Jews had occurred in European cities, starting in France. By November of that year they spread via Savoy to German-speaking territories. In January 1349, burnings of Jews took place in Basel and Freiburg, and on 14 February the Jewish community in Strasbourg was destroyed. This event was heavily linked to a revolt by the guilds five days previous, the consequences of which were, the displacement of the master tradesmen, a reduction of the power of the patrician bourgeoisie, who had until then been ruling almost exclusively, and an increase in the power of the groups that were involved in the recolt. The aristocratic families of Zorn and Müllenheim, which had been displaced from the council and their offices in 1332, recovered most of their power, the guilds, which until then had no means of political participation, could occupy the most important position in the city, that of the Ammanmeister. The revolt had occurred because a large part of the population on the one hand believed the power of the master tradesmen was too great, particularly that of the then-Ammanmeister Peter Swarber, and on the other hand, there was a desire to put an end to the policy of protecting Jews under Peter Swarber.”
1546: Three days before his death, Martin Luther preached his final sermon. “The subject of his final sermon…is ‘obdurate Jews’ and the urgency of expelling them all from German lands. According to Martin Luther, ‘we want to practice Christian love toward them and pray that they convert, [but they are] our public enemies ... and if they could kill us all, they would gladly do so. And so often they do.’ Thus the expulsion or even killing of Jews can be viewed by Christians as form of self-dense. This is exactly the excuse given by anti-Semites in Europe for centuries to come…”
1556: Thomas Cranmer who named Archbishop of Canterbury by Henry VIII was condemned as a heretic by the Roman Catholic Church. Whatever his difference with Rome, Cranmer took a pretty traditional view of things when it came to Jews. Citing St. Augustine, Cranmer declared that even if “Jews…do good works” like clothing the naked, feeding the poor and performing “other good works of mercy” they will be lost because they do not believe in Jesus.
1667: The end of the practice known as “Black Monday.” Prior to this date, the Jews of Rome had been subjected to a humiliating medieval practice of running a race in the Roman carnivals, scantily clad, amid insults and blows. This practice of "Black Monday" named for the day of the week during the Carnival Season on which it took place was not practiced after 1667.
1670: Leopold I ordered Jews to be expelled from
Vienna
within a few months. Although Leopold was reluctant to lose the large amount of taxes (50,000 Florins) paid by the Jews, he was persuaded to do so by his wife Margaret, the daughter of the Phillip IV Spanish Regent, and a strong follower of the Jesuits Margaret blamed the death of her firstborn on the tolerance shown to the Jews.
1674: Barbados passed a law granting the Jewish community the permission they requested. In the 1660's the Jewish community of Barbados became established and of considerable importance. The Jewish community, however, had a decided disadvantage in that their testimony was not admissible in court cases due to their refusal to take an oath on a Christian Bible. In October 1669 the Jewish community presented the king a petition requesting permission to take be able to take oaths on the Five Books of Moses, the Jewish Bible’
1727: Benedict XIII issuesd Emanavit nuper, a Papal Bull, dealing with “the necessary conditions for imposing Baptism on a Jew.”
1743: Henry Pelham, a member of the Whigs, became British Prime Minister. In 1753 Pelham “brought in the Jew Bill of 1753, which allowed Jews to become naturalized by application to Parliament.” The House of Lords approved the bill. But the Tories in the House of Commons tried to defeat it claiming it was “an abandonment of Christianity.” However Pelham and the Whigs prevailed and the bill passed and then was approved by the crown.
1859: Oregon admitted as the 33rd U.S. state. By the time Oregon joined the Union, Portland already boasted an active Jewish community which “launched its first congregation” in 1858. Despite their comparatively small numbers, several Jews have held public office in Oregon including Senators Joseph Simon and Richard L. Neuberger and Governors Julius L. Meier and Neil Goldschmidt. (Senator Neuberger’s wife who was also a Senator from
Oregon
was not Jewish; hence she is not listed.)
1861: During the session of the New York State Legislature, Mr. Woodruff introduced a bill today to appropriate $35,000 out of the State Treasury to the Hebrew Orphan Asylum of New-York City, for a building, as soon as $20,000 has been expended by the Trustees.
1862(14th of Adar I, 5622): Purim Katan
1864: Birthdate of Israel Zangwill. Zangwill is a name known to few today, but in his time he was an intellectual power. Zangwill was born in London and achieved fame by writing a number of novels many on Jewish themes including Children of the Ghetto, Ghetto Tragedies and The King of Schnorrers. Zangwill first met with Herzl in 1896 and attended the First (and all successive) Zionist Congress. He supported Herzl's Uganda plan and following its rejection, led the Territorialists out of the Zionist organization in 1905. He established the Jewish Territorialists Organization (ITO) whose object was to acquire a Jewish homeland wherever possible. Following the securing of the Balfour declaration, the ITO fell into decline and by 1925 it was officially dissolved. Zangwill supported Zionist efforts in Eretz Israel calling for a radical approach both as regards the demand for the early establishment of a Jewish State and the solution of the Arab question. He passed away in 1926
1871: During the Franco-Prussian Adolphe Crémieux, a leading member of the French Jewish community, along with several of his parliamentary colleagues, resigned their positions in the government France
1872: In Bucharest, members of the diplomatic corps, united in demanding that Prince Charles von Hohenzollern who is King Carol I of Romania, provide protection for his Jewish subjects. [The issue of Romania’s Jews would plague European affairs up to WW I.]
1877: In Berlin, gynecologist Leopold Landau and Johanna Jacoby, a member of the famous Jewish banking Jacoby family gave birth to Edmund Georg Hermann Landau the famed mathematician.
1878: Mrs. Hyam Benjamin hosted a musical evening in a Mayfair (London) drawing room.
1881: Birthdate of German psychologist Otto Selz. Selz’s works were suppressed by the Nazis. According to some, Selz was a major influence on his students including Sir Karl Raimund Popper who was one of the major figures in the world of 20th century philosophy.
1881: The New York Times features a review of “Hours with the Bible: From Creation to the Patriarchs by Dr. Cunningham Geikie.
1881: It was reported today that an altercation had taken place during a Paris musical between Gaetan de Monticlin, a socially prominent Frenchman and Arthur Meyer owner of Le Gaulois. According to de Monticlin, he had been mocked in an article published in Meyer’s newspaper. Meyer was a Catholic who was the grandson of a rabbi and who would support those who did not believe in the innocence of Alfred Dreyfus.
1882: Birthdate of composer and pianist Ignaz Friedman.
1882: Dr. John Lord delivered a lecture on “Moses” this morning at Chickering Hall to a “fashionable and cultured” audience. Lord told his audience that the moral code of Moses “is of the most importance, and rests on the fundamental principles of morality, and has been generally accepted as the basis of moral obligation. The primary principle of this code is the sin of idolatry and the recognition of the one God who created and rules the world.”
1887: Alexander Kohut, the rabbi of Congregation Ahawath Chesed married Rebekah Bettleheim in Baltimore, MD. She was the daughter of Rabbi Albert Bettelheim. Her marriage not only made her a wife it made her an instant wife since Kohut was a widower who had 8 children, six of whom were under the age of 13.
1891: It was reported today that the late Ellen M. Phillips has bequeathed $113,000 to various charities most of which were Jewish. The bequests ranged from $1,000 to $15,000 “including $5,000 to the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York. Ms. Phillips lived in Philadelphia, PA
1892: It was reported today that a Conference of the Russian-American Hebrew Agricultural Fund Association will take place this week in New York City.
1892: As New York City deals with its latest outbreak of typhus the President of the Board of health said that to have all of the Russian-Jewish passengers who arrived on the SS Masilia placed in quarantine on North Brother Island. An undetermined number of the passengers have shown symptoms and this is a way of preventing the spread. (Please note – the Jewish passengers were not singled out. The source was thought to lie in Russia, and it so happened that all of the Russian passengers were Jewish)
1894: Birthdate of Benjamin Kubelsky, better known as Jack Benny. The cry of
Rochester
saying, "Mr. Benny, Mr. Benny" in that gravely desperate tone was a signature of Jack Benny's humor in movies, radio and television. Benny loved to clown around with the violin and he created the self-portrait of a "miser." In one of his most routines, Benny is being held up at gunpoint. When the robber says "Your money or life" Benny pauses and using his great sense of comedic timing ponders his response. When the frustrated thief repeats his demand, Benny responds, "Wait a minute, I am trying to make my mind." (It is a lot funnier when you heart it or see it.) I must confess I am a fan of Jack Benny’s but I do not think I have been too lavish in my praise. Benny passed away at the age of eighty in 1974
1895:Birthdate of philosopher and sociologist Max Horkheimer
1895: It was reported today that lawyer and economist Simon Sterne expressed his opposition to the Single Tax Plan and in favor of tenement improvement programs in New York City
1896 Theodor Herzl published "Der Judenstaat" which outlined his vision for a Jewish State. For a complete copy of the text in English
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Zionism/herzl2.html
1897: Grand Master M. L. Sexias presided over the opening of the annual convention of District Grand Lodge, No.1, Independent Order Free Sons of Israel which is being held at the Lexington Opera House.
1898: “Hebrew Charities Building Bill” published today described that the purposes of legislation that would incorporate The Hebrew Charities Building in New York to allow for the erection, establishment and maintenance of a building in which Jewish charitable organizations could have their headquarters. It would also allow for the building to house a public library “with a special department in Judaica.”
1902: Herzl and Joseph Cowen arrive in Constantinople with hopes of starting negotiations to further the project of creating a Jewish homeland in Ottoman controlled in Palestine.
1903: US Department of Commerce & Labor established. Oscar Straus was appointed Secretary of Commerce and Labor in 1906 by President Theodore Roosevelt and he served in the position until 1909. Straus was the first Jew to serve as a cabinet secretary.
1910: Herbert Samuel completed his first term of service as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster in the cabinet of Prime Minister Asquith. (Samuel was Jewish; Asquith wasn’t)
1910: Herbert Samuel succeeded Sydney Buxton as Post Master General in H.H. Asquith’s cabinet. This would be the first of two times that Samuel would serve in this position.
1912: Arizona is admitted to the Union becoming the 48th and last contiguous state to become on the United States. Jews had been a part of the Arizona landscape from its earliest territorial days. According to Pioneer Jews, Nathan Benjamin Appel, a native of Hochstadt Germany, was an early pioneer of the Arizona Territory serving as a delegated to the First Arizona Territorial Legislature in 1863 as well as the Tucson chief of Police from 1883 to 1884. According to the 1880 census, there were approximately 316 Jews living in such places as Tucson, Phoenix and Tombstone. William Zeckendorf and Zadock Staab opened a Tucson based mercantile operation in May of 1878. The business had its ups and downs, finally failing in 1883 as a result of market fluctuations and competition from less expensive goods being brought in by the railroads. As can be seen from the successful career of Michael Wormser, a native of Lorraine who settled in Arizona, Jews engaged in agriculture as well as mercantile pursuits. By the time he died in 1898, his “agricultural kingdom” was worth $250,000, a considerable sum in those days. Samuel Barth was another of the colorful Jews who helped to settle Arizona. He worked as a miner, pony express rider and sutler. While trading with the Indians, he claims to have signed a treaty that “granted him title to nearly all of the northern Arizona Territory, including the Grand Canyon.” Barth, and his brothers Nathan and Morris, founded St. Johns where they damned parts of the Little Colorado River so that they could farm and raise livestock. Jews were not adverse to risk when it came to gunfighting as can be seen by the career of Louis Ezekiels who served as the Deputy Sheriff of Pima County and Jim Levy, the Irish born gambler and gunfighter, who ironically was shot by an angry gang who caught him when he “was not packing.” These early Jews worked hard to mainitain their Jewish identity. “Anna and I.E. Solomon, who found Solomonville in Arizona’s southeastern corner, refused to let their daughter Lillie marry a non-Jewish lawyer with whom she had fallen in love. Mother Solomon stepped in, put an end to the relationship and arranged for Lillian to marry a “Hebrew haberdasher from Globe. Anna Solomon is prime example of the Jewish matriarchs he stood shoulder to should with their husbands in establishing successful business enterprises while striving to maintain Jewish heritage and identity in the inhospitable desert of the Southwest. Two of early Arizona’s most famous Jewish citizens were Josephine Sarah Marcus who was the paramour of Wyatt Earp (because of Earp, is buried in a Jewish cemetery) and Mike Goldwater, the merchant king whose family, in later generations would give up the faith of their fathers as can be seen by the career of Barry Goldwater.
1913: Birthdate of Mel Allen. The mellow-toned sportscaster who was the voice of the New York Yankees was born Melvin Allen Israel in
Birmingham
,
Alabama
.
1915 Congregation Shearith
Israel
abolishes family pews from its synagogue.
1917: Birthdate of Herbert A Hauptman, a mathematician who shared the 1985 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with the chemist Jerome Karle for their development of revolutionary methods for determining the structure of molecules vital to life. (As reported by William Grimes)
1918: Birthdate of Yosef A.A. (Alfredo Antonio) Ben-Jochannan an Ethiopian born American historian. “According to his own biographical sketches, Ben-Jochannan was born to a black Puerto Rican Jewish mother and an Ethiopian Jewish father who were both black.” “Ben-Jochannan, also known as ‘Dr. Ben’, is the author of numerous books, primarily on ancient Nile Valley civilizations and their impact on Western cultures. Dr. Ben-Jochannan claims to be fluent in ‘over a half dozen languages.’ In his writings, he states that the original Jews were Black Africans from Ethiopia, while the ‘white Jews’ later adopted the Jewish faith and its customs.
1919(14th of Adar I, 5679): Purim Katan
1919: Birthdate of Fred Gilbert. A native of Warsaw, Mr. Gilbert would enter the first of 19 concentration camps at the age of 20. He stayed alive by serving as the chief barber for German officers at a concentration camp. He would meet his wife Ann, who had also been a prisoner at Dachau, on liberation day. They raised three children – Lena, Jack and Doris. Fred and Ann would become active in the Simon Wiesenthal Center Museum of Tolerance. Fred would spend his final years living in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
1922: Henry Ford’s Dearborn Independent “abruptly” ended publication of article on the “Jewish Problem” that included portions of “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.”
1927: Mortimer L. Schiff appeared on the cover of Time Magazine. Schiff, the only son of Jacob Schiff, was a partner in Kuhn, Loeb & Co and active leader of the Boy Scouts of America.
1929: “Nathan Straus received a cablegram today from Meir Dizengoff, Mayor of Tel Aviv and Chaim Nachmann Bialik, the famous Hebrew poet both of whom had participated in the dedication of the Nathan and Lina Straus Health and Welfare Center in Jerusalem at which John Hyanes Holmes of the Community Church of New York was one of the principal speakers. “Following elated words regarding your high aspirations and great enterprise for the benefit of your national and the land of your forefathers in the presence of your envoy, Mr. Holmes and representatives of all creeds, the assembly expresses feeling of veneration and great love to the great man and Jew, Nathan Straus, and sends you and your wife blessings and wishes for a long and happy life.”
1935(11th of Adar I, 5695): Joseph Simon, the first Jewish U.S. Senator elected from Oregon, passed away.
1937: The New York Times features a review of Palestine at the Crossroads by Ladislas Farago based on the journalist visit to Palestine in 1936.
1937: “Cardinal Michael von Faulhaber of Bavaria delivers a sermon in Munich in which he explains how the signing of the Concordat between the Vatican and Nazi Germany substantially increased Hitler's prestige around the world.”
1938: The Palestine Post quoted the text of Colonel R. Meinertzhagen's letter to The Times of London in which he wrote that both the former British Prime Minister Lloyd George and Mr. Balfour envisaged the whole of
Palestine
as a future Jewish sovereign state. In Meinertzhagen's view the partition recommended by the Lord Peel Committee only complicated the issue, insofar as it had crystallized Arab opposition. The colonel called for continued Jewish determination to achieve this goal, not only for the Jews, but also in a direct British interest.
1942: Birthdate of millionaire businessman and Mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg.
1943: In an article entitled “Visitor from Shangri-La” Theodore Strauss described the visit of veteran British actor H.B. Warner to New York where, among other things he his promoting “Hitler’s Children” an anti-Nazi film that has broken all records at the theatres in which it has been shown. Warner said that he is using the personal appearance tour to promote his own ant-fascist views.
1944: The national board of Hadassah, the Women's Zionist Organization of America, yesterday cabled $100,000 to Hadassah's founder, Miss Henrietta Szold, head of the youth immigration bureau of the Jewish Agency for Palestine in Jerusalem, as its part of an international celebration of the tenth anniversary of the Youth Aliyah (immigration) movement.
1944: Birthdate of Carl Bernstein, one of the two journalists who broke the Watergate Scandal.
1945: Henrietta Szold, of blessed memory, was buried today at 3 pm on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem. Among the attendees were representatives of the 12,000 Jewish refugees whom she helped to rescue through Youth Aliyah. As a sign of mourning all Jewish institutions flew their flags at half-mast and all of the Jewish newspapers were published with black borders on their front page. (As reported by JTA)
1945: President Franklin Roosevelt met with Ibn Saud where they discussed the future of the Jews and settlement in Palestine. Churchill received a full report of the meeting, but the report was kept secret from the rest of the world. Among other things Ibn Saud expressed his total opposition to Jewish settlement in Palestine and said that Holocaust survivors should be returned to their countries of origin. FDR expressed his essential agreement with the King’s position.
1947: Foreign Minster Bevin “announced that he was referring the entire Palestine imbroglio to the United Nations.”
1948: “The young Oxford philosopher Isaiah Berlin who was among those Churchill asked to scrutinize the text of volume one of his memoirs” sent the former Prime Minister a proposal about changes in content with a reminder that “You did, I recollect, order me to quite candid.” Berlin praised Churchill’s handling of the “tremendous story of the Rise of Hitler.”
1949: Russian-born English chemist and Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann, 74, was elected first president of the newly restored modern state of
Israel
.
1949 (Tu B’Shevat, 5709): The Knesset opened its first session. Political democracy has been part of the Jewish state since before its official founding. The Knesset is a unicameral legislature that many critics agree is quite unwieldy. The political party system is based on proportional representation which leads to coalition governments.
Israel
's critics like to forget that about ten percent of the members of the Knesset are Arabs. During the days of the Cold War,
Israel
's detractors liked to point out that members of the Communist Party were elected to the Knesset. What they forget to mention that
Israel
, unlike the Arab states, held free elections so of course it was the only country in the
Middle East
to have elected Communist officials. It was the only country in the
Middle East
to have democratically elected officials of any kind. Also, with approximately ten per cent of its members being Arabs, the Knesset also boasts the largest number of democratically elected Arab legislators in the
Middle East
.
1951: The door was opened for the elections for the second knesset when the government resigned today after the Knesset had rejected the Minister of Education and Culture's proposals on the registration of schoolchildren
1952: The Sephardic Jewish Brotherhood of America established the Lena and Henry J Perahia Scholarship Foundation Award as a permanent endowment
1952: Comedian Joey Adams marries gossip columnist Cindy Heller
1955: The cover of Time features Carl Jung, the one-time follower of Freud who split with his master and reportedly enjoyed an “unconventional” relationship with one of his Jewish patients.
1958: In a move to counter the newly created UAR which joined Egypt and Syria, Jordan and Iraq formed a union which created “a unified military command.” (Editor’s note – any move that created unified military commands among the Arab states posed an additional threat to Israel. At the same time, it should be noted that much of jockeying and hostility in the Arab world came from Arab fears of the fellows and had nothing to do with Israel.)
1961: Hadassah, the Women's Zionist Organization of America, accused the government of Morocco of bias against Jews and appealed to the Human Rights Commission of the United States to urge the Moroccan Government to stop what it termed “repressive action” including police brutality.
1962: Philanthropist Nehemiah M. Cohn, founder of the Giant Grocery Chain in Washington, D.C. stated that “Giving to those less fortunate than we are...brings us contentment and true happiness. The Talmud says that a man’s greatness is measured not by how much money he can acquire, but rather how much he can part with. Cohen’s view of philanthropy is carried on through the Naomi and Nehemiah Cohen Foundation.
1967(4th of Adar I, 5727): Francis Benedict Hyam Goldsmith, a British Conservative Member of Parliament and luxury hotel tycoon in France and the United Kingdom, passed away.
1968(15th of Shevat, 5728): Tu B’Shevat
1978: The Jerusalem Postreported that hundreds of Lebanese men, women and children in southern Lebanon demonstrated in an open space at the "Good Fence," an open Israeli-Lebanese crossing point, demanding that Syrian army leave the Lebanese territory.
1978: The Jerusalem Postreported that Israeli officials in Washington noted that US Secretary of State Cyrus Vance's hardening stance and his assertion that the settlements in the occupied areas "should not exist" was a deliberate shift of US policy, arrived at only after Egyptian President Anwar Sadat visited Washington and influenced US President Jimmy Carter in this direction.
1983: Ariel Sharon completed his term as Minister of Defense.
1983: Manchem Begin began serving as Minister of Defense.
1985: The U.S. Rabbinical Assembly of Conservative Judaism announced their decision to begin accepting women as rabbis.
1988(26th of Shevat, 5748): Composer Frederick Lowe passed away. The Austrian native teamed with Alan Jay Lerner to create a number of hit musicals including “Brigadoon,” “Paint Your Wagon” and most famous of all, “My Fair Lady.” (As reported by Stephen Holden
http://www.nytimes.com/1988/02/15/obituaries/frederick-loewe-dies-at-86-wrote-my-fair-lady-score.html?pagewanted=print&src=pm
1989 ( 9th of Adar I): Rabbi Sheldon Haas Blank, a professor of Bible who was a faculty member at the Cincinnati campus of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion for more than 60 years, passed away at Jewish Hospital in Cincinnati. He was 91 years old and lived in
Cincinnati
.
http://www.nytimes.com/1988/02/15/obituaries/frederick-loewe-dies-at-86-wrote-my-fair-lady-score.html?pagewanted=print&src=pm
1989: An article published today entitled Fossil Findings Fan Debate on Human Origins by John Noble Wilford reported that “new fossil discoveries” in caves in Israel “and genetic evidence have fueled a resounding debate among anthropologists over the timing and circumstances of the last major event in human physical evolution, the emergence of the anatomically modern Homo sapiens.
http://www.nytimes.com/1989/02/14/science/fossil-findings-fan-debate-on-human-origins.html?pagewanted=print&src=pm
1991: Today, a victim of last Saturday's missile attack on a Tel Aviv suburb -- military censors do not permit publication of his name -- held a prayer service in the yard of his damaged house. He and several friends prayed and danced with Torah scrolls as a bulldozer sat poised to push the building down. As soon as they finished singing Hatikvah, the national anthem, the bulldozer driver raised his shovel, pushed forward and leveled the remains of the house.
1992: The McCrory Corporation, the financially troubled parent of a chain of five-and-dime variety stores, said today that it would miss a debt payment and hinted that it might file for bankruptcy court protection. McCrory is part of the Riklis Family Corporation, a privately held concern headed by Meshulam Riklis, an Istanbul native who came to America from Tel Aviv in 1947. Other Riklis holdings have included the Samsonite Corporation, Elizabeth Arden, the Culligan International Company, Martha White Foods Inc. and Botany 500.
1996(24th of Shevat, 5756): Judith Kaplan Eisenstein, daughter of Mordechai Kaplan and the first bat mitzvah ever, passed away at the age of 86.
1999: Bruce Fleisher won the American Express Invitational with a three round score of 203.
1999: The New York Timesbook section featured a review Why Not Me? The Inside Story of the Making and Unmaking of the Franken Presidency by Al Franken.
2003: University of California outfielder Brian Horowitz was responsible for a record-breaking RBI’s in today’s game. (Editor’s note – Brian Horowitz, the Golden Bear’s outfielder is not to be confused with Professor Brian Horowitz, the distinguished author and member of the Tulane University faculty)
2005: Effi Eitam was suspended from the party chairmanship by the National Religious Party's internal court, after he left the government against the center decision. The suspension caused Eitiam and Yitzhak Levi to leave the party.
2005: The Taipei Times features an article in which Taiwan’s only rabbi, Ephraim Einhorn, recounts the history of Taiwan’s small Jewish community that has existed since the 1950’s and its links to the Holocaust.
2006(16th of Shevat, 5766): Eighty three year old Shoshana Damari, whose unique throaty voice and larger-than-life performances embodied the Hebrew revival myth, passed away today after a short bout with pneumonia. (As reported by Steven Erlanger)
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C05E7DF133EF936A25751C0A9609C8B63
2007: Haaretz featured an article on the state of the Jewish community entitled “Las Vegas: Lots of Jews, not much Judaism.”
2007: Gabi Ashkenazi received the rank of Lieutenant General and was appointed Chief of the General Staff.
2008: The 12th New York Sephardic Jewish Festival comes to an end with a showing of “Nuba of Gold and Light.”
2008: In The Financial Express, an article entitled “Guitar in Tow, Rabbi Set to Spread Jewish Traditions in Poland,” describes the work of Rabbi Tanya Segal. A Russian-born Israeli with long fiery red hair, she is the first full-time female rabbi in
Poland
.Segal, a youthful and energetic 50-year-old is from the Progressive or Reform stream of Judaism. She lives in
Warsaw
but travels frequently around
Poland
, guitar in tow, on a mission to bring Jewish traditions to corners of the country of 38 million where large Yiddish-speaking communities thrived for centuries until World War II.
2009: In Cedar Rapids, Iowa, a one-of-a-kind, award-winning exhibit of hundreds of pieces of World War II era mail and documents related to the Nazi’s attempted extermination of Jews and others will be publicly displayed at Coe College in the Perrine Gallery of Stewart Memorial Library. The collection is owned by the Deerfield, Illinois-based Florence and Laurence Spungen Family Foundation, which acquired the extraordinary items to preserve and offer them for public use at Holocaust and genocide educational venues around the world. According to a press release, “The insured value of the collection is $1 million, but the educational value to future generations is incalculable,” said Daniel Spungen, a member of the board of the Spungen Family Foundation. “One of the most