March 22 In Jewish History
1144: This date marks the first ritual murder libel which took place in in Norwich, England. It set the pattern for subsequent accusations that would be made into the 20th century all across Europe.. A 12 year old boy, William, was found dead on Easter Eve, and the Jews were accused of killing him in a mock crucifixion. They were not, however, accused of using his blood for the making of matzos, although this would become a standard feature of later libels. It was later presumed by scholars that the boy died during a cataleptic fit or else he was killed by a sexual pervert. After Easter, a synod convened and summoned the Jews to the Church court. The Jews refused on the grounds that only the king had jurisdiction over them and they feared that they would be subjected to "trial by ordeal." William was regarded as a martyred saint and a shrine was erected in his memory. In spite of this episode, there was no immediate violence against the Jews. Over the years, despite denunciations by various popes, ritual murder libels continued. Possession of a saint's shrine bestowed great economic benefits on a town because sacred relics drew pilgrims who spent money on offerings, board, and lodging. For bones to be considered sacred relics they had to be killed by a heretic (i.e. a Jew). Such charges were used as an excuse to murder Jews as late as 1900.
1190: In England, King Richard angered by the riots and the loss of crown property ( since the Jews belonged to the crown) renewed a general charter in favor of the Jews first issued by Henry II. His Chancellor Longchamp instituted heavy fines against the Pudsey and Percy families thus at the same time enriching the treasury and hurting his political opponents. Only three people who were also accused of destroying Christian property were executed
1349: The townspeople of Fulda Germany massacred the Jews because they blamed them for the Black Death.
1369: In France, Charles V sought to force Jews to attend church services by issuing an order that included a penalty for defiance. Unless they complied "the Jews might suffer great bodily harm".
1457: The Gutenberg Bible became the first printed book. The printing revolution would soon reach the world of Jewish literature. Thanks to Gutenberg's remarkable invention, books would soon be much more readily available to the People of the Book.
1510: The Jews were expelled from Colmar Germany. Jews had been living in this town in Upper Alsac for at least three centuries prior to their expulsion for which no reason is given.
1564: In Mantua, Italy, David Provensalo and his son Abraham asked the Jewish notables to help him create a Jewish College. The idea was to allow Jews to learn languages and science while also receiving a “Jewish education.” Although they did establish a Talmudic academy they were opposed by the local Church and did not succeed in opening the College.
1749: “Solomon,” an oratorio by George Handel based on the biblical stories about King Solomon had its final performance at the Theatre Royal in London.
1797: Birthdate of Kaiser Wilhelm I German whose reign lasted from 1871 1888. The Prussian monarch became the first ruler over a united Germany. In 1869, the emancipation process for the Jews of Germany was completed. “All still existing limitations of the…civil rights which are rooted in differences of religious faith are hereby annulled.” Jews rose rapidly during his reign. Guided by Chancellor Bismarck, the German government actually became champion of the less fortunate Jews living to the East.
1799(15th of Adar II, 5559): Shushan Purim
1827: Birthdate of William Lafayette Strong, the last Mayor of New York City elected prior to its modern consolidation. As befitted a Mayor of New York, Strong spoke positively of his Jewish constituents of whom he said, “The Jews take care their own. They are taught to be self-supporting.” He expressed the view that while he had seen many applications for public assistance, he did not “one single application came from a Hebrew.”
1832: German writer J W Goethe passed away at the age of 82. The creator of Fuast admitted to being ant-Semite from his earliest days. His attitude towards Jews changed when he came to realize that they were the same people who had authored the Bible, especially the Songs of Songs, a book for which he had a special affection. While Goethe could admire the Jews from an historic point of view he was an opponent of Jewish emancipation in the Fatherland. Goethe was not the first or the last intellectual who loved Jews, so long as they were dead Jews.
1853: Birthdate of Isidor Kaufman, the Hungarian born painter whose works include “Portrait of a Yeshiva Boy” and “Day of Atonement”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Kaufmann_Day_of_Atonement.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Isidor_Kaufmann_Portrait_of_a_Yeshiva_Boy.jpg
1861: Jacob and Amalia Freud gave birth to Maria “Mitzi” Freud
1862(20th of Adar II, 5622): Uriah Phillips Levy, Commodore of the United States Navy, passed away in Philadelphia. Levy was a descendant of the original 23 Jews who settled in New Amsterdam in 1654. He was buried in the Cypress Hill Cemetery in the Congregation Shearith Israel portion. On his stone was written, "He was the father of the law for the abolition of the barbarous practice of corporal punishment in the United States Navy."
1862: During the American Civil War, as Union forces under the command of General McClellan moved up the peninsula in an attempt to take the Rebel capital of Richmond, an articled entitled "Clippings From Rebel Papers” Conditions of Richmond” published today reported that only soldiers returning to their regiments were being issued permits to leave the city. At the same time “The Jews have packed up their goods, and gold and silver ornaments, and are in great tribulation and ferment that their flight has been stopped.”
1864: In Albany, NY, the Assembly passed a bill “authorizing the New-York City authorities to convey to the Hebrew Benevolent Society certain real estate.”
1864(14th of Adar II, 5624): Purim
1864: “The Jewish festival of Purim will be celebrated this evening, by a grand, fancy dress ball, at the Academy of Music. It is recognized as one of the most important of Jewish festivals, as it commemorates the deliverance of the Jews from the tyranny of Haman, who was prime minister to King Ahasuerus. The arrangements for the ball are very extensive, and the ornaments appropriate and beautiful. But one thousand tickets have been issued, and these only to be obtained by personal introduction to a member of the committee, the party introducing being held strictly accountable for the character and conduct of the persons introduced. With such strict rules and such liberal preparations, the ball cannot fail to be one of the best of the season.”
1873: It was reported today that of 11,859 people committed to New York’s public lunatic asylums since 1847, 402 of them were Jews.
1874; The Young Men's Hebrew Association was founded in New York City. It was the first of several such organizations found in cities across the United States intended to provided for the “mental, moral, social, and physical improvement of Jewish young men.” In part the YMHA was a Jewish response to the YMCA.
1875: Sixty-two year old Hezekiah Linthicum Bateman, the American theatrical manager known as H.L. Bateman passed away. Bateman was responsible for bringing Henry Irving so that he could star in "The Bells," the play based on “Le Juif Polonias” (The Polish Jew)
1875: Samuel Alexander, the famed Australian-born British philosopher who was the first Jewish fellow of an Oxbridge college “matriculated at the University of Melbourne where he entered an arts course.
1875: It was reported today that the Home for Aged and Infirm Hebrews in New York had raised $17,455.08 in the past year, spent $13,345.96 leaving a balance of $4,109.12.
1883(13th of Adar II, 5643): Fast of Esther
1883: In New York City, Rudolph and Virginia (Kohlberg) Sampter gave birth to Jessie Ethel Sampter “poet, Zionist thinker and educator, social reformer, and pacifist” who “was a member of the inner circle of Henrietta Szold’s female friends in Palestine during the 1920s and 1930s.” (As reported by Baila R. Shargel)
1885: Birthdate of Reb Aryeh Levin.
1887: Birthdate Chico [Leonard] Marx, one of the famous Marx Brothers.
1895: Birthdate of Joseph Schildkraut, Austrian born, Oscar winning, actor.
1890: The will of Solomon Adler was filed for probate today.
1890: Harold Nathan will deliver a lecture tonight on “The Use of a Library” at the downtown branch of the Young Men’s Hebrew Association. (The public libraries of the United States were “the poor man’s university, especially for the immigrant population that came to the United States at the turn of the century.)
1890: Colonel Jacob E. Bloom, a New York attorney “is suing James M. Seymour and Francis J. Patton to establish an interest in Patten’s electrical inventions and to recover $200,000. (Bloom would serve as Superintendent of the Baron de Hirsch Industrial School)
1891: It was reported today that the Jews were the first to feel the effects of the resurgence of “semi-savage orthodoxy throughout the Muscovite Empire” although they no longer have a monopoly “on the pains of persecution” since the Protestants are now under government surveillance.
1891: It was reported today that “the proposal of Baron Hirsch to” settle 300,000 Russian Jews in Argentina, “which was at first very favorably received by the government” has now been rejected as a result of objections “stirred up in the press.” The government of Uruguay has also rejected the proposal.
1892: The creditors of the Jewish banker J.E. Guenzburg met in St. Petersburg today.
1892: The New York City Health Department received information today that the SS Massilia, the ship that had brought a large number of Jewish immigrants infected with typhus on its last trip to New York was on its way back to the city with another load of immigrants.
1893: Thousands of people gathered outside of the Reichstag waiting to hear the details of Hermann Ahlwardt’s proof that while Bismarck was Chancellor “fraudulent contracts” had been entered to with Jewish financiers resulting in “the loss of vast sums of money belonging to the State” Ahlwardt was a high school president, who ironically, had been extricated from his financial problems by Jewish friends before turning on them to pursue a career as an anti-Semitic agitator.
1893: Dr. Louis Fischer will deliver a lecture “Cholera – What It Is and How To Cure It” at the Hebrew Institute.
1893: Senda Berenson, the "Mother of Women's Basketball", officiated at the first women's basketball game at Smith College, in Northampton, Massachusetts. Born in Lithuania and raised in Boston, Berenson was weak and delicate as a child. An athletic career would have seemed unlikely for the woman whose poor health rendered her unable to complete her training at the Boston Conservatory of Music. But in 1890, she entered the Boston Normal School of Gymnastics, in a bid to improve her strength and health. There, she trained in anatomy, physiology, and hygiene, and was hired by Smith College upon her graduation in 1892. Berenson, the director of the physical education department at Smith, first heard about a new game called "Basket Ball" soon after her arrival in Northampton. Invented as a class exercise for boys, the game — like most team sports — was considered too strenuous for girls, who were instead encouraged to participate in individual sports like swimming, archery, and horseback riding. Berenson observed the game being played in Springfield, and met its inventor, Dr. James Naismith, who encouraged her to adopt the game as exercise for her female students. At the first basketball game on March 22, 1893 (some sources cite March 21), Smith freshmen were pitted against Smith sophomores, with no male spectators allowed. With rules intended to avoid the roughness of the men's game, the new game became a hit, and soon swept the country. By 1895, there were hundreds of women's basketball teams, and these teams helped open the door to other team sports programs for women. Berenson wrote the first official rulebook for women's college basketball, as well as a number of articles on the new sport. She continued to edit the rules until the 1916-17 season, and many of the rules she developed remained standard until the 1980s. Berenson died in 1954. Over thirty years later, in 1985, she was the first woman to be inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, MA.
1894(14thof Adar II, 5654): Purim
1895: The will of the late Dr. Bernard Grunhut was filed for probate following the end of the challenge brought by the two children of the descendant. The judge’s ruling that enough evidence had been presented that their father’s marriage was valid, “even if he was not of sound mind” at the time of the ceremony. This means that the Hebrew Benevolent Society an Mount Sinai Hospital will each receive bequests of $25,000 with the widow receiving the residual of the estate with the exception of $25,000 that had been bequeathed to a baby that reportedly died fifteen days after it was born.
1896: An article entitled “Easter Cookery” published in the New York Times includes a description of Chad Gad Ya, “The Kid of Passover,” which it compares to “The House That Jack Built.”
1896: Dr. Gustav Gottheil delivered the second in a series of sermons on “What Is a Christian Nation” at Temple Emanu-El in New York City.
1897: Rabbi Ignatz Grossman, who passed away two days ago in New York, will be buried in Detroit, Michigan where his son Dr. Louis Grossman serves as a rabbi. Two of his other sons, Julius and Rudolph, are also rabbis while his fourth son Adolph is a businessman in Chicago.
1897: “The Austrian Elections” published today described the various factions competing for seats in the Reichsrath that meets in Vienna including “the anti-Semites, the Jews baiters of Vienna and Lower Austria” who are “closely connected with the Clericals.”
1897: Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Schiff were unable to attend the Purim Ball at the Montefiore Home for Chronic Invalids because they were in Frankfort-on-the-Main. Schiff is President of the of the Montefiore Home and he sent a telegram from Germany expressing his regrets.
1897: “Home For Aged Hebrews” published today included a history of the organization which “is an outgrowth of the B’nai Jeshurun Ladies’ Benevolent Society.” In 1870, a young men’s organization, the Benevolent, Dramatic and Musical Association, gave the women $3,500 as seed money and the home was incorporated in 1872. The home was designed to serve those over the age of sixty who are “entirely dependent on themselves for support and unable to support themselves.
1897: Dr. S.N. Leo is the director of the pharmacy at the Home for Aged and Infirm Hebrews in New York.
1898: It was reported today that 300 children from the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society and the New York Orphan Asylum are going to attend the upcoming show at the Harlem Music Hall.
1899: Rabbi Gottheil is among the speakers scheduled to address a meeting of workers at the Hebrew Institute
1903: Birthdate Levi Arthur Olan, the Ukranian native who served Rabbi of Temple Emanu-El of Dallas, Texas from 1949 to 1970.
1904: Birthdate of Isaac Goldberg, the native of Poland, who gained fame as “Itche Goldberg, a champion of Yiddish who wrote and edited and taught his beloved language in the face of all those who said keeping Yiddish alive was a lost cause.” (As reported by Ari L. Goodman)
1912: Dedication ceremonies for Anshe Chesed’s new temple on Euclid Avenue in Cleveland, Ohio began.
1914: The United Synagogues of America, an organization of Conservative Congregations, held its second annual convention in New York City. During his address to the convention, Professor Solomon Schechter, President of the Jewish Theological Seminary, called for worship services to be conducted in Hebrew with English replacing Yiddish as the language in which the sermons were to be given. Schechter also refused to serve another term as President of the organization and Dr. Cyrus Adler of Dropsie College was elected to serve in his place. Among the other highlights of the convention was a presentation by Rabbi Mordechai Kaplan, Chairman of the Education Committee in which he outline an aggressive program to upgrade and modern the Jewish educational opportunities in a manner consistent with the challenges of modern day America.
1915: The Army and Navy Young Men’s Hebrew Association issued an appeal to the New York Jewish community asking that its members open their homes to serviceman for the first Seder on March 29 and the second Seder on March 30. According to the Association, “there are 300” Jewish serviceman in the New York area “who have no friends or relatives here.” The Association will provide lodgings at a local hotel and the servicemen will attend services at the synagogue or temple of their choice. Those who cannot offer hospitality are urged to send a contribution to suppot the groups efforts toe Joseph S. Marcus, the association’s treasurer.
1915: The majority of the Palestine Refugees' Committee under the encouragement of Joseph Trompledor and Vladimir Jabotinsky endorsed a resolution calling for the formation of a “Jewish Legion" and propose to England its utilization in Palestine. Within a few days about 500 enlisted.
1920: Birthdate of actor Werner Klemperer who played Colonel Klink on Hogan’s Heroes
1923(5th of Nisan, 5683): Max Nordau, early Zionist leader, passed away at the age of 73. Born in 1849 in the city that would later be known as Budapest, Hungary (then part of the Austrian Empire), Nordau’s life followed a conventional pattern for many Jews of his time and social class. Raised with a traditional Jewish background, he drifted away from Judaism finding fame and fortune as a writer and physician. As the 19th century came to a close, Nordau was alarmed by the rise of anti-Semitism and became and early supporter of another Austrian Jew, Theodore Herzl. When Herzl died, Nordau was asked to take his place. He declined offering to serve as an advisor to David Wolffsohn. Nordau drifted away from the formal organization as Zionism changed from Herzl's grand political approach to a more practical approach. After World War I, Nordau advocated the immediate immigration of half a million Jews to Palestine. Nobody heeded his advice. He died in Paris, far from the limelight, an almost forgotten figure who had believed in the cause of the Jewish state when most said it was an impractical dream or the scheme of lunatics.
1923: Birthdate of mime Marcel Marceau. He was born Marcel Mangel in Strasbourg, France. After having seen Charlie Chaplin, he became interested in acting. At 15, his Jewish family was forced to flee their home as France entered the Second World War. He later joined Charles De Gaulle’s Free French Forces and, because of his excellent English, worked as a liaison officer with General Patton's army. He began studying acting at the Sarah Bernhardt Theatre in Paris in 1946.
1924: Birthdate of Al Neuharth, founder of USA Today.
1928(1st of Nisan, 5688): Rosh Chodesh
1929: The month long celebration of the 20th anniversary of the founding of Tel Aviv began with a Purim Carnival.
1930: Birthdate of composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim. Born in New York City, the son of a successful dress manufacturer, Sondheim's childhood was comfortably upper-middle class. He was a precocious child: he skipped kindergarten, began reading the New York Times in the first grade, and at ten began studying lyric writing with Oscar Hammerstein, who was a family friend. Sondheim went on to compose his own music and lyrics for A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1962), Follies (1971), Sweeney Todd (1979) and Sunday in the Park with George (1984)
1931: Birthdate of actor William Shatner, Captain Kirk on Star Trek.
1931: Moghannam Elias Moghannam, a member of the Palestine Arab Executive declared that “it was totally untrue that certain Arab politicians had met Jewish representatives I Palestine into to establish the preliminary basis of a peace parley.” The Arab leader was especially critical of any Arab who was willing to meet with Dr. Chaim Weizmann who had arrived in Tel Aviv in an attempt to reach a modus Vivendi that would restore peace to Palestine.
1931: “Marshall Letter Won $500,000 Gift” tells the hitherto unknown story of how a letter from Louis Marshall to Julius Rosenwald resulted in the latter’s decision to make a major donation to the Jewish Theological Seminary.
1935: In Camden, NJ, Rabbi Philip Lipis addressed Congregation Beth El during its search for a new spiritual leader. In April, the congregation offered him the position which he accepted.
1936: In article previewing the upcoming tourist and cruise season, the New York Times reports that a spring fair in Tel Aviv will attract large crowds “from overseas and Near Eastern cities.”
1937(10th of Nisan, 5697): Dr. Henry J. Wolfe, a general practitioner who “had also done extensive work in neurology and psychiatry” passed away today at the age of 75. A graduate of City College, Wolf earned his M.D. at Heidelberg University in 1884. One of his daughter, Mrs. Prsscilla Litavsky has made Aliyah and lives in Tel Aviv.
1937: The Palestine Post reported that Dov Zemel, a lorry driver, was shot at an ambush near Kfar Saba and was in critical condition.
1937: The Palestine Post reported that British troops captured two terrorists in a battle with an Arab gang near Acre. There were sporadic shooting accidents in Jerusalem and Safed.
1937: The Palestine Post reported that Six Arab prisoners sentenced to death had their sentences commuted to penal servitude for life by the High Commissioner, Sir Arthur Wauchope.
1937: The Palestine Post reported that Two cooperative groups settled on the Jewish National Fund land, allocated by the Arlosoroff Memorial Fund in the Jordan Valley. Important archaeological finds were discovered near Afula.
1939: The German army occupied Memel and the region around the Lithuanian town. By that time about 21,000 people had left the city, most of them Lithuanians as well as a small number of Jews, the majority of the latter having left beforehand. The Nazis confiscated private and public Jewish property valued at tens of millions Litas. Jews had lived in Memel since the 14th century.
1943: The first group of Macedonian Jews were shipped from Skopje to Treblinka.
1943: The first of four new crematoriums at Auschwitz was ready for use and began operation.
1943: Time magazine reported on speech by Henri Honoré Giraud in which the High Commissioner of North Africa disavowed the conditions of the German armistice and the subsequent decrees of Vichy ("promulgated without the participation of the French people, and directed against them"). He said that Vichy's anti-Jewish laws "no longer exist," promised to hold municipal elections in North Africa. He also revoked the Cremieux Decree of 1870, which granted French citizenship en bloc to Jews in Algeria, but excluded the Arabs. Henceforth, Moslems and Jews must complement each other economically, "the latter working in his shop, the former in the desert, without either having advantage over the other, France assuring both security and tranquility."
1944: The Washington Post reported "Poles Report Nazis Slay 10,000 Daily." (Jewish Virtual Library)
1944: Shlomo Venezia and his family who were living in Thessaloniki were deported to Athens, the first leg of a trip that would take them Auschwitz.
1944: In Poland, at the Koldzyczewo Work Camp Shlomo Kushnir succeeded in leading almost all the Jewish inmates who were still alive out of the camp after killing ten Nazi guards. Kushnir committed suicide when he was caught with twenty-five others. The others joined the partisans in the forests.
1945: The Arab League was formed today in Cairo. "The League's first resolutions included a restriction on Egyptian Muslim contact with those who were call 'supporters of Zionism,' that is, all Egyptian Jews."
1946: Gotthil Wagner was killed by as yet unidentified gunmen today outside of Tel Aviv. Wagner was a German national who had been detained by the British as an enemy alien. The British were permitting Wagner to engage in his various business interests. Reportedly several younger Jews were not happy with Wagner and other Germans to return to a normal life in Palestine because they had openly sympathized with Nazi policies before the war “and openly voice anti-Jewish sentiments.”
1947: For the first time in eight days, all 12 members of the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry on Palestine were at the hearing in Jerusalem where a variety of Christian leaders described their view (and needs) of the current conflict between Arabs and Jews. The Anglican Bishop in Jersualem described the conflict as one of “differing civilizations and different tempos of progress.”
1947: Sigmund Menkes was award the Corcoran Gold Medal and the first W.A. Clark Prize for his entry “Day’s End, 1946” in the Twentieth Biennial Exhibition of Contemporary Painitings sponsored by the Corcoran Gallery of Art. Thirty-two year old Jack Levine of Boston won the Bronze Medal for his entry “Apteka” making him the youngest of the winners.
1947: “Hagannah posted pamphlets in Tel Avi” today “accusing the Irgun…of being deserters from the Zionist struggle and of wasting their efforts in murder while Haganah strove to rescue Jews from Europe. As the principal organizer of illegal immigration Haganah charged the Irgun with neglecting that primary function.”
1947: Dr. Nahum Goldman addressed the Tel Aviv Journalists Associate today telling them that “the historical alliance between Britian and Jewry is nearing its end. That alliance has existed since 1917 when the Balfour Declaration gave Zionists their first legal claim on Palestine as a national home. Its virtual dissolution obviously brings the Zionist movement to an hour of decision. It must ovtain a new international guarantee, another protector among the great powers.
1948: Birthdate of journalist Wolf Blitzer.
1949: Holocaust survivors Moryc Brajtbart (later Morris Breitbart) and Lucy Gliklich “married in the Rosenheim displaced persons camp today and immigrated to the United States the following December.”
1950: According to New York Times correspondent C.L. Sulzberger, the future of Israel depends on its ability to make peace with the surrounding Arab nations and developing normal commercial relations with them while receiving continued political support from the the United Kingdom and the United States and getting additional American aid so that it can meet is “grandiose economic development plans.
1951(14thof Adar II, 5711): Purim
1952: Birthdate of sportscaster Bob Costas
1953: Arthur Miller's "Crucible" premiered in New York City.
1957: Israeli forces withdrew from the Sinai Peninsula as part of the peace process following the Suez Crisis of 1956. Failure of the international community and United Nations to honor its guarantees will lead to further crisis that will boil over into the Six Day War of 1967.
1958(1st of Nisan, 5718): Rosh Chodesh Nisan;Shabbat HaChodesh
1958(1st of Nisan, 5718): Movie producer Michael Todd died in an airplane crash in New Mexico. Born Avrom Hirsch Goldbogen in 1909, Todd won an Academy Award for Best Picture in 1956 for producing Around the World in Eighty Days. At the time of his death he was married to Elizabeth Taylor who would later marry Jewish crooner, Eddie Fisher. Along the way, Ms. Taylor would convert to Judaism
1960: Arthur Leonard Schawlow whose father was a Jewish immigrant from Latvia andCharles Hard Townes receives the first patent for a laser.
1965: Bob Dylan "goes electric," releasing his first album featuring electric instruments, Bringing It All Back Home.
1972: In an aritcle in the Jerusalem Post, Walter Eytan, who has served as Amabassador to France and Chairman of the Israel Broadcasting Authority, wrote that he was sure Israelis would vote overwhelmingly in a favor of a move to leave the West Bank if that departure would guarantee peace. He was equally sure that Israelis would reject a call for withdrawal just for the sake of withdrawal that was not part of a guaranteed peace.
1973: Lyndon B Johnson President died at his Texas Ranch at the age of 64. As a young member of the U.S. House of Representatives in the 1930’s, Johnson intervened to help bring Jews from Hitler’s Europe to the United. In 1945, he visited concentration camps in Germany where he was visibility moved by the suffering inflicted on the Jewish people. At the time of the 1956 Suez Crisis, As a U.S. Senator in 1956 and 1957, Johnson opposed the Eisenhower Administration's pressure on Israel and supported her position. During the crisis that led to the Six Day War in 1967, President Johnson urged the Israelis to act with caution. Pre-occupied with the Vietnam War, Johnson attempted to organize an International Flotilla that would enter the Straits of Tiran and break the Egyptian Blockade of Elath. His attempts failed. Based on his intelligence reports, Johnson assured the Israelis that he knew they would emerge victorious. As the war came to a close, the Soviets attempted to repeat their 1956 diplomatic rescue of their Arab allies. The Soviets threatened military action unless the Israelis immediately withdrew. Unlike Eisenhower, Johnson did not cave into the threat. Instead he mobilized the Sixth Fleet and sent into the eastern Mediterranean. The Soviets got the message. After the war, Johnson saw to it that America filled the void left by France's new anti-Israel policy and the United States became the main arms supplier for the IDF. Thanks to Johnson’s efforts, the 1964 Civil Rights Act became law which, among other things, banned discrimination against religion. Last but not least, one of Johnson’s favorite lines was from Isaiah, “Come let us reason together;” a line when uttered was a sure sign that an opponent was about to get “The Treatment” intended to turn foe into political friend.
1977: The Jerusalem Post reported that the 4,500 employees of the country's three ports went on a general strike to back up their demands for an increase of IL 600 per month. Only passenger ships were exempted.
1977: The Jerusalem Post reported that the Supreme Court set a precedent in declaring an Israeli citizen extraditable. An Israeli businessman who was wanted by the Swiss government on charges of defrauding a bank was declared extraditable in a precedent-setting ruling.
1979: The Israeli Parliament approved the peace treaty with Egypt.
1981(16th of Adar II, 5741): Shusan Purim
1987: The New York Times reviews "The Messiah of Stockholm" by Cynthia Ozick, a novel that is dedicated to Philip Roth.
1993: The third round of talks comes to an end at Oslo, Norway.
1995: Hilary Koprowski was awarded the title of Commander of the Order of the Lion of Finland by the President of the Republic of Finland.
1998: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or special interest to Jewish readers including Laughing Matters: On Writing ''M*A*S*H,'' ''Tootsie,'' ''Oh, God!,'' and a Few Other Funny Things by Larry Gelbart, A March to Madness: The View From the Floor in the Atlantic Coast Conference by John Feinstein and Spin Cyle: Inside the Clinton Propaganda Machine by Howard Kurtz.
2000: In an article entitled “A Victim's Sang-Froid in Very Coldblooded Times,” Richard Bernstein not only reviews I Will Bear Witness: A Diary of the Nazi Years, 1942-1945 by Victor Klemperer; translated and with a preface by Martin Chalmers but provides a valuable picture of the privation faced by this hidden Jew.
2004: Ahmed Yassin, co-founder and leader of Hamas, and his bodyguards are killed in the Gaza Strip when hit by Israeli Air Force AH-64 Apache fired Hellfire missiles.
2005: The New-York Historical Society opened an exhibit entitled "First Ladies of New York and the Nation." Among the unusual items on display in the exhibit were four handbags created by Judith Lieber.”
http://jwa.org/thisweek/mar/22/2005/judith-leiber
1995: Hillary Koprowski was awarded the title of Commander of the Order of the Lion of Finland by the President of the Republic of Finland. A native of Poland, Koprowski is an American virologist and immunologist, and inventor of the world's first effective live polio vaccine. He was one of three Jews – the other two being Salk and Sabin – who played a leading role in developing a Polio Vaccine.
1999: Eliezer Sandberg left the Israel in the Centre party to establish HaTzeirim
1999(5th of Nisan, 5759): Eighty-five year old British historian Max Beloff, passed away. In addition to his academic accomplishments, Beloff served as governor of the University of Haifa and as Baron Beloff served as an active member of the House of Lords. According to the Unbroken Chain, the Beloff’s family lineage traces back “to the House of David as descendants of Rabbi Meir Katzenellenbogen, the Maharam of Padua.” For about Beloff see his autobiography An Historian in the Twentieth Century.
2006: Rabbi Joseph Telushkin delivers a speech on "A Code of Jewish Ethics", followed by a book signing at Barnes and Noble Bookstore in New York City.
2006: In Seville, Spain, the Second World Congress of Imams and Rabbis for peace came to a close.
2006: Haaretz reported that a string of anti-Semitic incidents in the aftermath of the torture and murder of a young Jewish vendor is fueling concerns that anti-Jewish feelings are spreading in France's black community
2008: Shushan Purim, 5768
2008: As part of the Israel at 60, the 92nd Street Y presents Danny Sanderson, Israeli lyricist and pop icon. Sanderson, a singer-songwriter legend whose album, Kongo Blues, was voted January 06 album of the month in Israel, performs some of Israel's best known and most beloved songs.
2008: Publication of selected writings of Pfc. Daniel Agami, of blessed memory.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/22/us/4000agami.web.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
2009: An exhibition featuring the works of Israeli born photographer Shai Kremer at the Metropolitan Museum comes to a close.
2009: The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research presents a speech by Dr. David Fishman of the Jewish Theological Seminary on the topic "The Problem of Religion and Secularism among Secular Yiddishists in Eastern Europe.
2009: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including the recently published paperback edition of “Now You See Him” by Eli Gotlieb.
2009: At Temple Sinai in Los Angeles, New York Times columnist Roger Cohen “faced off against some 400 Iranian Jews and Bahais” who took exception to his recent columns describing the plight of Jews living in Iran.
2010: The 14th Annual Hartford Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to present “Tribute: Observations on Survival and Spirit - Lessons from the Holocaust” featuring eight short films including “Holding Leah,” “Pigeon,” “Sarah and Hayah,” “The Next Harvest,” “The Wall,” “Torte Bluma,” “Toyland” and “Waiting for Dachau.”
2010: Shots were fired at an Israeli army patrol this evening next to Aduraim in the southern Hevron Hills. No injuries or damage were reported. Additional troops were sent to search the scene.
2010(7th of Nisan, 5760): Rabbi Zachary Heller, past president of the World Council of Masorti Synagogues and a congregational rabbi for nearly 30 years died today after a long battle with cancer. He was 71. He served as senior rabbi of Temple Emanu-El, a Conservative congregation in Bayonne, N.J., for 29 years, and was considered "a rabbi's rabbi," according to a death notice in The New York Times.nHeller worked as the associate director of the National Center for Jewish Policy Studies for 12 years from 1997. As president of the World Council of Masorti Synagogues from 1989 to 1994, he lectured and taught in 22 countries and mentored rabbis in many communities. The Masorti movement in Israel is affiliated with Conservative Judaism.
2011: Tony Kushner’s latest play, “The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide to Capitalism and Socialism With a Key to the Scriptures,” is scheduled to open today.
2011: “James’ Journey to Jerusalem” is scheduled to be shown in Iowa City as part of the Hillel Film Series.
2011(16h of Adar II): On this date on the Hebrew Calendar the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem began under King Agrippa I.
2011: The three major film schools in Manhattan-- Columbia University School of Arts, The School of Visual Arts Film School and NYU Tisch School of the Arts--,are scheduled to host the opening night of a three day salute to the achievements of the Sam Spiegel Film School.
2011: Thirty-five congregations including shuls from cities as large as Phoenix and Las Vegas, and as small as Chesterfield, Mo. and Norfolk, VA have registered for the 3rd annual Emerging Communities Conference sponsored by the Orthodox Union which is scheduled to begin today.
2011: Today, the Tel Aviv District Court sentenced former president Moshe Katsav to seven years in prison and two years’ probation for rape and sexual harassment, which he was convicted of in December. Judges George Karra, Judith Shevach and Miriam Sokolov also ruled that Katsav pay NIS 100,000 to victim "Aleph" from the Tourism Ministry.
2011: Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin slammed the “dangerous” military conversion bill, while calling on the rabbinate to increase and enhance its conversion efforts as a countermeasure to the massive assimilation taking place in Israel.
2011: A Grad rocket fired from Gaza exploded south of Ashdod today after a day of escalation along the border.
2011: The opening of the exhibition by artist Sharon Poliakine and painter Oren Eliav, takes place at The Tel Aviv Museum of Art
2011: In “New edition out for Maxwell House Haggadah, part of Passover tradition for many American Jews” that “From the White House to the Schein house, Passover is good to the last drop thanks to the Maxwell House Haggadah, lovingly passed down through generations, red wine splotches and gravy smears marking nearly 80 years of service at American Seder tables.
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2012: Spokane Jewish Cultural Cultural Film Festival is scheduled to open in Spokane, Washington
2012: The 16th Annual New York Sephardic Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to come to a close.
2012: The Jewish Music Festival is scheduled to present the Bustan Quartet in Berkley, CA.
2013: “The Gang’s All Here” which features Benny Goodman playing himself is scheduled to be shown as part of the Bernard and Irene Schwartz Classic Film Series.
2013: Portugal’s national soccer team is scheduled to square off against its Israeli rivals at the national stadium in Ramat Gan this afternoon.
2013: President Obama is scheduled to attend wreath laying ceremonies at Mount Herzl at the grave sites of Theodor Herzl and Yitzhak Rabin followed by a visit to Yad Vashem where he will in a wreath laying ceremony in the Hall of Remembrance.