March 11 In History
1513: Leo X elected Pope. Leo X succeeded Julius II, the Pope who paid for the painting of the Sistine Chapel. “To Martin Luther, Leo was the functioning head of a “
kingdom
of
Antichrist
.’” Even his admirers might say that Leo was more a man of the Renaissance than a Vicar of Christ. He respected learning, even when that learning was Jewish. In a dispute concerning the Talmud, Leo took the side of Johann Reuchlin one of the Christian scholars who could read Hebrew. He defended the Talmud, saying that it did blaspheme Jesus or Christianity. Despite the pressure on him to burn the Talmud to the opposed tact and had a Christian printer produced the text in its entirety, without censorship. Leo banned the requirement of the Jew Badge in his French possessions and refused to enforce it in his Italian holdings.
1415: Pope Benedict XIII banned the study of the Talmud in any form and tried to restrict Jewish life completely. The town of
Tortosa
,
Spain
, was the scene of a disputation between Christians and Jews from 1412 through 1414. These disputations were always rigged so that the Christians would win. The Pope (or as he described by some the anti-Pope) was enraged by the lack of conversions which was the cause of the ban.
1762: Although
Rhode Island
was considered more liberal than other states, and although a few Jews had been previously granted citizenship, the state refused to grant citizenship to Aaron Lopez and Isaac Eliezer. The court stated that “no person who is not of the Christian religion can be admitted free of this colony.” Lopez was granted citizenship by
Massachusetts
, and the sentence “upon the true faith of a Christian” was excluded from the oath. Lopez was probably the first Jew to be granted citizenship in
Massachusetts
.
1800(14th of Adar, 5560): First Purim of the 19th century
1801: Paul I of Russia is assassinated, leading the way for his son Alexander I to accede the throne. Paul’s death was no loss to the Jews of Russia. At the time of his death, Paul was preparing to implement the recommendations contained in a report entitled, “An Opinion on How to Avert the Scarcity of Food in White Russia Through the Curbing of the Jews’ Avaricious Occupations, Their Reformation and Other Matters.” Alexander I began his reign by adopting a series of policies that were designed to further degrade and impoverish the Jews. As the threat of Napoleon loomed on the horizon, Paul’s policies towards the Jews softened and improved. The first Lubavitcher Rebbe urged Jews to support Alexander in the fight against Napoleon. After the Napoleonic threat disappeared Alexander’s treatment of the Jews became increasingly less sympathetic. By the time of his death, he had returned to the reactionary views that had marked the start of his reign.
1812: Prussian Jews were granted civil rights. The price of citizenship included the adoption of family names in the Western style. Although later reaction revoked most of this freedom, the discrimination never returned to the level existing in the "Middle Ages." That is, until the rise of Hitler.
1831: Birthdate of Adolf Neubaur. A native of Hungary and student of rabbinical literature, he worked in the Austrian Consulate at Jerusalem where he began publishing articles about the Jews of that city. Eventually he made his way to Oxford where he enjoyed a distinguished career as a reader in Rabbinic Hebrew and sub-librarian at Bodelian Library. Besides his extensive cataloguing work, this unsung intellectual hero edited the Aramic text of the Book of Tobit and discovered a Hebrew fragment of the wisdom text of “Ben Sira.”
1852: An article entitled “Benjamin Disraeli” published today described the various views, most of them negative, on the appointed of Disraeli to serve as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Much of the criticism was based on Disraeli’s career as the author of several novels. Apparently being a man of letters should have disqualified him for such a post. According to the author of the article, Disraeli’s literary background gives him unique qualifications for public life. Besides which, he was the most capable member of his party serving in the House Commons where the Conservatives were in need of leaders.
1853: The Jewish Disabilities Bill came up in the House of Commons for a second reading. Mr. Ernal Osborne argued “that religious liberty was violated in the exclusion of Jews from Parliament and thought the question not one of Jewish disabilities, but of the right of Christians to be represented by whom they pleased.” Several Members of Parliament “totally opposed the bill on Christian grounds.”
1872(1stof Adar II, 5632): Rosh Chodesh Adar II
1873: In a letter written today, W. Archdall O’Doherty stated that it was a year ago to the day that he had delivered “control of the Erie Railway to a little London Jew of the name of Bischsoffsheim.” The letter continues with his explanation of the financial machinations that the new owners have engaged in since the sale. [Editors Note – The reference is to Bischoffsehim and Goldschmidt, British bankers, who were the leaders of a group of English shareholders seeking to oust Jay Gould from his controlling position of the railroad which he was ruining for his personal financial gain. Gould was one of the villains of the Robber Baron Era. The letter was written by a shadowy figure whose role was emerging during the multiple investigations that were being conducted. His resort to an anti-Semitic smear was not unusual in certain circles at that time,]
1876: It was reported today that the Purim Ball which has been held for several years at the Academy of Music did not take place this year. No reason was given for the change which came as a surprise because it was so popular with both Christian and Jewish citizens of New York.
1884(14thof Purim, 5644): Purim
1886: In Chicago, Rabbis Lesser, Anexter and Oalperstein officiated at the appraisal of four casks of wine and liquor shipped from Jersualem for using during the upcoming holiday of Passover. According to the appraiser, the wine will carry a duty of three dollars a gallon. The wine looks liked “ordinary Rhine wine and tastes like hard cider.” After the Appariaser finished his work, the religious leaders sealed the casks and recited the appropriate prayers over them.
1884(14thof Adar, 5644): Purim
1890: “Found Dead In A Cellar” published today described the events surrounding the discovery of a female corpse in a building that is used as a dry goods store by Moses Levy on the ground floor and as a school by Aitz Chaim, a Talmud Torah occupying the second and third floors under the direction of Isaac Libermann and Hermann Rothstein.
1891: Ignatz Klein swore before Coroner Levy that a girl that he had seen the United States named Rose Kohlmeyer was in fact Esther Soloymis, the girl he was accused of murdering nine years ago in Hungary as part of an alleged blood libel.
1892: Authorities are investigating reports of patient neglect at North Brothers Island, the site where numerous typhus fever, many of whom are Russian Jewish immigrants, are supposed to be held until they regain their health or pass away.
1892(12th of Adar, 5652): Sixty-two year old Mason Hirsh, an umbrella manufacturer from Philadelphia, passed away today New York after being hit by a car two days ago. He was the Treasurer of the United Hebrew Charities of Philadelphia.
1894: “The Treaty in the Reichstag” published today described the debate taking place in the German parliament over the adoption of a Russian-German Commercial Treaty; a debate filled with ant-Semitism. Baron von Hammerstein and Lieberman von Sonnenberg called the treaty “monstrous” because it would allow Russian Jews to enjoy all the privileges of Germans while avoiding military service. They “warned the government that these Russian Jews would inevitably overrun and monopolize entire villages and absorbed the prosperity of the provinces.
1896: Herzl meets Reverend William Hechler chaplain to the British Embassy in
Vienna
. Hechler was tutor in the household of the Grossherzog von Baden. He knows the German Kaiser and thinks he can get Herzl an audience.
1897: Mount Sinai Hospital, the Hebrew Benevolent Orphan Asylum, the Montefiore Home, the Home for Aged and Hebrews are each to receive bequests of three thousand dollars from the late Simon Goldenberg. The United Hebrew Charities and the Hebrew Technical Instituteeach will receive bequests of five thousand dollars.
1903: Zionist leader Oskar Marmorek returns to
Vienna
. While few may know his name today, the Austrian born architect was an early convert to Zionism joining Max Nordau and David Wolffsohn as one of Herzl’s key supporters.
1904: Birthdate of leading childhood obesity and anorexia researcher Hilde Bruch. Raised in a small German town, Bruch originally wanted to become a mathematician. An uncle convinced her that medicine was a more practical career for a Jewish woman, and she earned her doctorate in medicine at the
University
of
Freiburg
in 1929. After giving up her academic career for private practice in response to anti-Semitism within the university, Bruch fled
Germany
altogether in 1933, immigrating to
England
. After a year in
London
, she moved to the
United States
, where she began working at
Babies
Hospital
in
New York City
. Bruch began researching obesity in children in 1937; her work in this area would prove to be groundbreaking. Yet she left this research in 1941 to study psychiatry at the
Johns
Hopkins
University
. Returning to
New York
in 1943, she both established a private psychoanalytic practice and joined the faculty at
Columbia
University
's
College
of
Physicians
and Surgeons. In
New York
, and at Baylor College of Medicine in
Houston
,
Texas
, where she joined the faculty in 1964, Bruch's research increasingly focused on the underlying causes of anorexia nervosa. She published both scholarly and popular articles on eating disorders, and continued to see patients until her eightieth birthday. Her collected work, published as Eating Disorders: Obesity, Anorexia Nervosa and the Person Within in 1973, is still considered a definitive work on the subject. Bruch died in
Houston
in December, 1984.
1906: In a column entitled “Talk With Josef Lhevinne,” the Jewish pianist who is visiting the United States discussed a wide range of topics including the impact of Anton Rubinstein on his career, his love and admiration for America and his disappointment that he will not be able to go fishing while in this country. “Fishing is favorite diversion, aside from tennis which he plays constantly to keep down his weight and to diversion to the muscles of his arms.”
1909: Birthdate of Jules Engel “a Jewish-Hungarian American filmmaker, painter, sculptor, graphic artist, set designer, animator, film director, and teacher.”
1911: Fire breaks out at the Triangle Waist Factory, also known as the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. At least 146 workers died most of them immigrant Jewish women.
1917: During World War I Baghdad falls to the Anglo-Indian forces commanded by General Maude. Those welcoming the British included, “red-fezzed oriental Jews in misfit European clothing…”
Baghdad
was part of the
Ottoman Empire
. According to General Maud, Jews, not Moslems, made up the majority of the city’s population. Maude probably overstated the actual number of Jews. But he did not overstate the economic role the Jewish population played in an area that children of
Israel
had lived in since the days of the Babylonian exile. According to Martin Gilbert, for several years afterwards, their arrival was celebrated by the Jews of Baghdad as "a day of miracles."
1918: Mrs. Felix Warburg opened her house home on New York’s Fifth Avenue, for a reading by Miss Jenny Mannheimer which was intended to be fundraiser for the War Relief Fund.
1922: Bernard Baruch and Henry Morgenthau were among those who pledged to raise $100,000 for the Woodrow Wilson fund of $1,000,000 which is to be used in the establishment of annual prizes for meritorious public service.
1927: Samuel Lionel "Roxy" Rothafel opened the theatre that bears his name – Roxy Theater- in New York City. Six years later he would open an even more famous venue – Radio City Music Hall – that feature the “Roxyettes” who were later known as the “Rocketts.” (And you thought those leggy gals were named after a missel.)
1931: Birthdate of media entrepreneur Rupert Murdoch. Murdoch’s mother was Jewish.
1932: At
NYC
City Hall
, Mayor Jimmy Walker met with 10 of 13 of the athletes who will be participating in the Jewish Olympics before they set sail this evening on SS Majestic. The mayor praised the group saying that the co-ed cohort of athletes would bring honor and glory to the
United States
and
New York City
.
1933: Jewish-owned department stores in Braunsshweig were looted.
1937: As Arab violence continued to mount, The Palestine Postreported that armed Arabs
attacked Jews who plowing fields near Afula. Two Kfar Tavor farmers, Jacob Kizler and Shlomo
Rothenstein, were seriously injured during the attack by armed. Stanislav Sluga, the 46-year-old
Pole who was shot in a Ness Ziona orange grove, died after being taken to the hospital. Dogs
tracked his alleged Arab assailant.
1938: The German army entered
Vienna
. Austrian Jews were instantly deprived of all civil rights. Physical and mental oppression of Austrian Jews began and
Austria
ceased to exist as in independent state.
1938: As the prowess of Szapsel Rotholc continued to grow, “the Idishe Bilder newspaper ran a front-page headline proclaiming "Our Szapsel, the boxing hero." The article went on to point out that Szapsel the Yiddish version of the Hebrew name Shabtai, means sheep, but his army of fans saw him as a far more dangerous animal. "Who would ever have imagined," the correspondent waxed, "that the Jewish people, the People of the Book, would take the sport of boxing to their hearts? After all, Jews - who are, by their very nature, gentle souls - have never been thought capable of such things."
The article went on to describe Rothholc as "our jewel, who made the Germans eat dirt."
1942: The Gestapo used Jews for target practice at Janowska labor camp. Chief Dibauer and Lieutenant Bilhause would pick them off from their window as they carried loads of rocks.
1943: “The Sephardic Jewish community of Monastir, historically the largest Jewish community in Macedonia was deported…In cooperation with the Germans, Bulgarian military and police officials rounded up 3,276 of Monastir's Jewish men, women, and children, deported them to German-controlled territory and turned them over to the custody of German officials. The Germans transported the Jewish population of Monastir and environs to their deaths in Treblinka as part of their plan to murder all European Jews.”
1943: “Bulgarian police monitored by SS rounded up the entire Jewish population of Skopje, Bitola and Štip.The population was sent to temporary detention center in the state tobacco warehouse known as "Monopol" in Skopje. Among 7,215 people who were detained in warehouses there were:[34]
539 children less than 3 years old,
602 children age 3 to 10 years
1172 children age 10 to 16 years
865 people over 60 years old
250 seriously ill persons (tied to the bed)
4 pregnant women who have given birth in the detention camp
4 people died at the arrival in the camp.”
1945: Birthdate of Mark Steinvocalist/organist and founder of Vanilla Fudge.
1947: Levy Shklonik, the secretary of the Tel Aviv Labor organization told its members today “that the time would come when the labor movement would have to undertake a bloody anti-terrorist struggle. His message echoed the words of Hashomer Hatzair (Young Guard Movement) which called on the Federation of Jewish Labor to join in the fight against terror and kidnapping.
1947: Kibbutz Yakum (He Shall Rise) was established on the Plain of Sharon north of Tel Aviv. The collective was founded by members of the Hashomer Hatzair (Young Guard Movement).
1947: A group of American, Rhodesian and South African Jewish war veterans who had served variously with the American military, the British Army and South Africa’s Sixth Armored Division have founded Maayan Baruch (Spring of Barch), a kibbutz in the Upper Galilee near the borders with Syria and Lebanon. The kibbutz is named in honor of Bernard Gordon of blessed memory who had served as vice president of the South African Zionist Federation and who had left half of his large estate to the Jewish National Fund.
1948: Arabs bombed the headquarters of the Jewish Agency. The explosion of the car bomb in the courtyard of KH-UIA's building, tragically claiming the lives of Keren Hayesod - United Israel Appeal's Director, Leib Jaffe and 11 other Keren Hayesod - United Israel Appeal employees.
The Jewish Agency was the unofficial government of the Jewish Community (the Yishuv) in what was to become the state of Israel. This attack was part of the unofficial war waged by the Arabs designed to "drive the Jews into the sea" prior to the British leaving
Palestine
in May, 1948.
1949: The first Israeli troops reached the Gulf of Aqaba where a white bedsheet with a hand drawn blue Star of David is hoisted as a sign of the Jewish state’s claim to the area around Eilat.
1950(22nd of Adar, 5710): Dr. Mordecai Elash, Israel’s Ambassador to Great Britain, passed away today.
1950: “The visiting Istanbul Fenerbache soccer players were carried off the hield on the shoulders of Israeli fans today after they had whipped the Tel Aviv Hapoel 3 to 0 in the first mach of their Israel tourney.” The enthusiastic demonstration was probably the result of Turkey’s announcement this week that it was recognizing the state of Israel, making Turkey the first Moslem country to do so.
1950: Birthdate of film director Jerry Zucker. “Ghost” and “Ruthless People” were two of his more notable films.
1951: Birthdate of MK Aryeh Gamliel
1952(14th of Adar, 5712): Final Purim observed during the Presidency of Harry S Truman
1952: The Jerusalem Post reported that the Israel Medical Association warned that the "deteriorating nutrition situation was inherently dangerous." The Minister of Agriculture, Levi Eshkol, voiced full support for "Magen David Yarok" the planting of vegetables in home gardens. Urgent steps were taken to solve the problems of theft, pilferage and smuggling in the
Haifa
port which assumed dangerous proportions.
1955(17th of Adar, 5715): Anna Freud, a sister of Sigmund Freud, passed away.
1959: Premiere of “Raisin In The Sun” the controversial play produced by Philip Rose who personally raised the money to bring the drama to Broadway.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/10/arts/television/doris-belack-judge-on-tvs-law-order-dies-at-85.html
1964: Birthdate of actor Peter Berg, best known as Dr. Billy Kronk on TV's Chicago Hope. Berg’s father is Jewish and his mother was Catholic.
1968: Birthdate of singer and songwriter Lisa Loeb.
1972: Birthdate of Benjamin Cohen the French singer no known Benjamin Diamond.
1975(28th of Adar, 5735: Fifty-two year old former MK Meanchem Cohen passed away.
1977: The Jerusalem Postreported from
Washington
that Hanafi Moslem terrorists held more than 100 mostly Jewish hostages in three buildings and threatened to chop off their captives’ heads, unless their demands were met. Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was pleased with
US
President Jimmy Carter¹s definition of peace and with his distinction between "defense lines" and "legal borders." But he forecast a tough clash with the
US
over Israel¹s final borders.
1977: More than 130 hostages held in
Washington
,
D.C.
, by Hanafi Muslims were freed after ambassadors from three Islamic nations joined the negotiations. The B’Nai Brit building was one of the three buildings which the Muslims had seized.
1977: Palestinians killed 34 Israelis on the Tel Aviv-Haifa highway.
1978: The Palestine Liberation Organization carried out a massive terrorist attack in Israel. PLO terrorists from Lebanon first killed Gail Rubin, an American Jewish photographer.
1978: Eleven Palestinian terrorists landed in Zodiac boats on a beach just outside Ma'agan Michael and from there ventured towards Tel Aviv in a hijacked bus in what has become known as the Coastal Road massacre where 39 Israelis were killed.
1978: Terrorists killed 45 Israelis during an attack on a mail truck at Tel Aviv.
1982: In an article entitled “The Dance: By Pola Nirenska,” New York Times correspondent Anna Kisselgoff described the travailed filled life of this accomplished dancer and choreographer whose life took her from pre-war Poland, through the days of the Holocaust to a new life in America.
1986: The Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles granted Leo Frank a pardon, citing the state's failure to protect him or prosecute his killers, though they stopped short of exonerating him.
1987:Secretary of State George P. Shultz today called the Israeli spy case ''very disheartening'' and said a decision by the Israeli Government to investigate would have ''a cleansing effect.'' Testifying before the Foreign Operations Subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee, Mr. Shultz also confirmed reports that all United States officials in Israel had been ordered to have no contact whatever with Col. Aviem Sella or with the Tel Nof Air Base, which he commands. Colonel Sella has been indicted by a Federal grand jury on charges of espionage in the case of Jonathan Jay Pollard, a United States Navy employee who has been sentenced to life in prison for giving intelligence information to Israel.
1989: Birthdate of Russian-born, American actor Anton Yelchin. Yelchin’s parents were Olympic class ice skaters whose carreers in the old Soviet Union were limited because they were Jewish. Yelchin’s father would become the trainer for Jewish skater Sasha Cohen.
1990(14th of Adar, 5750): Purim
1999: In ceremonies at
New York City
's
92nd Street
Y, Rachel Adler was awarded the National Jewish Book Award for Jewish Thought. The award recognized “Engendering Judaism: A New Theology and Ethics,” which set forth a new model for integrating modern feminism with traditional Jewish theology.
2001: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or special interest to Jewish readers including “Martyrs' Crossing” by Amy Wilentz and “Paradise Park” by Allegra Goodman.
2001: In
New York
, premier performance of “I Will Bear Witness: The Diaries of Victor Klemperer” by Victor Klemperer; adapted by Karen Malpede and George Bartenieff; translated by Martin Chalmers.
2002:
Israel
lifted Yasser Arafat's three-month confinement in
West Bank
.
2005: The
United States
government reached a $25.5 million settlement with the families of Jewish Hungarian Holocaust victims in the so-called Nazi "Gold Train" affair and will acknowledge the U.S. Army's role in commandeering a trainload of the families' treasures during World War II.
2006: A London revival production of “Once in a Lifetime” written by Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman came to an end today.
2006: Spain began a somber remembrance of the Madrid terror bombings on this, the second anniversary of the attacks - with plans for Christians, Muslims and Jews to join in prayers for peace, and for silence to descend at a memorial set up for victims. The normally festive atmosphere of a weekend in
Spain
will be replaced by heartbreaking memories of the morning of
March 11, 2004
, when 10 backpacks loaded with dynamite and shrapnel turned crowded commuter trains into a maelstrom of blood, twisted metal and wailing sirens. A total of 191 people died and more than 1,500 were wounded. It is a day etched so indelibly in Spaniards' minds that virtually everyone remembers where they were when they learned of the bombings, the frantic rescue efforts, and the anguished search for missing loved ones. Five centuries after the conquering Christians expelled the Moors and the Jews from
Iberia
, the three religions are joined together in expressing their grief for the victims of the terror that is the enemy of all civilized people.
2007 In Nagoya, Jewish professional wrestler Matt Bloom and Travis Tomko defeated Manabu Nakanishi and Takao Ōmori to win the IWGP Tag Team Championship.
2007: The Central Conference of American Rabbis, a 1,500 member group representing Reform Rabbis opened its annual meeting in
Atlanta
,
Georgia
.
2007: An exhibition entitled “Biblical Art in a Secular Century: Selections, 1896-1993” featuring that includes the works of such Jewish artists as George Segal and Ben-Zion Weinman, as well as outstanding non-Jewish artists, at New York’s Museum of Biblical Art comes to an end.
2007: The Reconstructionist movement formally names Rabbi Toba Spitzer to head its Rabbinical Association. Rabbi Spitzer is the first avowed Lesbian to lead such a Jewish group.
2007:The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including “The Gospel of Food: Everything You Think You Know About Food Is Wrong” by Barry Glassner and “At the Same Time” by Susan Sontag
2007:The Washington Post features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including “Waiting for Daisy” by Peggy Orenstein.
2008: The
92nd Street
Y presents “Dennis Prager: The Case For Judaism,” featuring the popular radio talk show host and author.
2008: In
Jerusalem
famous Israeli singer Ronit Shahar performs in an acoustic concert at Beit Shmuel, singing many of her hit songs.
2008: The Belgian government and banks agreed to pay €110 million ($170 million) to Holocaust survivors, families of victims and the Jewish community for their materia