March 26 In History
1027: Coronation of Conrad II as Holy Roman Emperor, whose court was the site of a religious disputation between Bishop Wazon “the overlord of” Liege and an unnamed Jewish physician. (As reported by the Jewish Virtual Library)
1147: Jews of Cologne, Germany, fasted to commemorate anti-Jewish violence.
1481: “Seventeen Marranos perished at the stake on the Quemadero (place of burning) in Seville, Spain. (As reported by Abraham Bloch)
1692(9th of Nissan, 5452): The Jewish community of Carpentras, France escaped from a rioting mob causing this date to be celebrated as a Private Purim
1671(15th of Nisan 5431): In Amsterdam, the Great Synagogue was consecrated on the first day of Pesach (Passover).
1780: Birthdate of Isaac Elias Itzig, who as Julius Eduard Hitzig served Prussia as a civil servant before gaining fame as a German author.
1801(12th of Nissan, 5561): Fast of the First Born observed since the 14th falls on Shabbat.
1831: Rabbi David de Aaron de Sola preached the first sermon in English at Bevis Marks Synagogue in London. Born in Amsterdam in 1796, de Sola was the son of Aaron de Sola. He began serving at Bevis Marks in 1818. A prolific author he published his first work, The Blessings, in 1829 followed by his six volume translation The Forms of Prayer According to the Custom of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews in 1836. De Sola was also a musician whose accomplishments included musical rendition of Adon Olam which is still used in both Sephardi and Ashkenazi synagogues in the United Kingdom. He passed away in 1860.
1808: Sephardic Jewish leader and MP Ralph Bernal and his wife Ann Elizabeth gave birth to Ralph Bernal Osborne
1852: It was reported today that an Imperial Ukase has been issued in Russia that classifies Jews into two categories, “those who have a fixed residence and a trade and those who have neither. The latter are to be employed in the public mines and fortresses.”
1852: In a sign of the crumbling power of the Sultan and the commensurate growth of European power, in Palestine, it was reported today that the Ottomans had agreed to grant France the right to build a church in a suburb of Bethlehem and to allow Catholic priests the right to repair their church in Jerusalem.
1852: The congregation of Ohabei Shalom dedicated its own synagogue building on Warren Street, the first synagogue in Boston and the second in New England.
1855: Nahum Steiner, a Jew who converted to Christianity, delivered a speech at the Knickerbocker Hall in New York entitled “Our Present Christianity Compared With Primitive Discipleship or Judaism Again.” During his presentation he attempted to answer questions regarding the destiny of the United States when compared to Jewish History.
1860: The U.S. House of Representatives adopted a resolution offered by Ohio Congressman Clement Vallandigham “calling for the correspondence relative to the Swiss Treaty” including the limitations that this treaty placed “upon Hebrew citizens of the United States.” This is the same Congressman Vallandgiham who would be labeled as a Copperhead during the Civil War. The issue of the discriminatory nature of the Swiss treaty as it affected the Jews was one of the first times that the civil society moved to protect its Jewish citizens.
1861(15th of Nisan, 5621): The New York Times reported that “The Jewish Passover, a festival commemorative of the deliverance of the children of Israel from Egyptian bondage, commenced last evening, and will continue for eight days. The origin of the festival is given in the 12th Chapter of Exodus, and the Bible prediction that it should be forever observed by the Israelites throughout the world, has this far been strikingly fulfilled. The duties imposed upon the Jews during the Passover are, total abstinence from all kinds of leaven and leavened bread attendance of the males at the Tabernacle, and cessation of business on the first two and last two days of the festival. On the evenings of the first two days, the reading of the Seder takes place in every Jewish family, the members, meanwhile, sitting round a table, on which are placed the bone of a lamb, representing the sacrifice of the "paschal lamb," and some bitter herbs, symbolical of the bitterness of the Egyptian bondage. After the reading of the Seder, the family chants a service reciting their bondage and deliverance. Previous to the Passover, every Jewish household undergoes a thorough renovation, corresponding to the house-cleaning process customary among Christians.”
1862: Uriah P. Levy passed away.
http://www.fau.edu/library/brody8.htm
1863: According to a report published today, during the month of February, there 7 Jewish children staying at the Howard Mission and Home for Little Wanderers in New York City
1868: The Orphans' Guardians or Familien Waisen Erziehungs Verein was organized in Philadelphia “chiefly through the efforts of R. Samuel Hirsch of the Congregation Keneseth Israel. Instead of keeping the children together in one institution, this society endeavored to find homes for them among respectable Jewish families.
1869(14th of Nisan, 5629): Erev Pesach
1870: Birthdate of Isaac Elias Itzig as Julius Eduard Hitzig worked as a civil servant and author in Germany.
1872: In New York, Hirsh Bernstein came to the D.A.’s office where he posted bail after having been indicted on charges of libeling Rabbi Ahrenson. The dispute revolves around a dispute about the sale of wine which may or not be considered “kosher.”
1875: Birthdate of German physicist, Max Abraham.
1875: E.G. Holland delivered his lecture on “The Hebrew Race” this evening at a meeting of the Liberal Club in Plimpton Hall.
1876(1st of Nisan, 5636): Rosh Chodesh Nisan
1880(14th of Nissan, 5640): Ta’anit Bechorot
1888(14th of Nisan, 5648): The New York Times reported that “the Jewish feast of Pesach, or the Passover, will begin at sunset this evening, and continue for eight days. This feast was ordained to commemorate the departure of the Children of Israel from Egypt, under the leadership of Moses after they had been held in bondage for upward of 400 years…There is a peculiar observance connected with the first evening of the festival on which occasion the head of the household gathers about him at the table all the members of the family, including servants if they be Hebrews, and with ancient rites and ceremonies he recounts the story of the deliverance of his forefathers from the bondage under which they had been held by the Egyptian Pharaohs for so many years.”
1891: It was reported today that Joseph Abrahamson had changed his name to Joseph Abraham Edson because he was getting ready to marry a young Christian girl “and that both…were desirous that his surname should have every semblance of a Jewish named removed.”
1892: The Brooklyn Chess Club will host Willliam Steinitz, the Prague born Jewish chess champion.
1892: The Oratorio Society presented the Biblical opera “Samson and Delilah” under the direction of Walter Damrosch the German born conductor whose paternal grandfather was Jewish.
1893: Arthur Reichow of New York notified Louis Hahn that a check for $800 would be sent to him to meet the needs of the Jews living in Chesterfield, Connecticut.
1893: “Suffers in Russia” published today described the worsening conditions of the Jews living in the Pale. They cannot find work in the Pale and the government will not allow them to leave the Pale to find jobs. Only the charity of English Jews has prevented a larger number of deaths. The Minister of the Interior is waiting for a report from the Governor of the Pale on the possibility of further Jewish immigration. (This is further evident of the infamous 1/3, 1/3, 1/3 Policy of the Czarist governments)
1893: Members of the Fourth Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York heard a presentation by Reverand Hermann Warazawiak on the origins, customs and practices of Passover. Warazawiak spoke with an air of authority since he had been raised as an Orthodox Jew in Poland before converting in 1889.
1894: “Of The Jews and Their State” published today provided a detailed review of The Jewish question and the Mission of the Jews, an anonymous work published by Harper &;Brothers.
1895: “Russia’s New Business Rules” published today described the additional restrictions placed on “Foreign commercial travelers of the Jewish persuasion” which do not apply to non-Jewish businessmen.
1896(12th of Nisan, 5656): Fast of the First Born observed since the 14th of Nisan falls on Shabbat
1896: The "Sion" society in Sofia adopts an enthusiastic resolution proclaiming Herzl as their leader.
1897: Birthdate of Polish-born, French movie director Jean Epstein
1896: Among the books on art sold by Bangs & Co in New York was The Gentile and the Jew, a two volume work by J.J. Dollinger published in London in 1862 that included 113 engravings by Bartolozzie which cost $10.
1898: In Albany, New York, the Assembly passed a bill introduced by Senator Cantor that exempted the real estate of the Young Men’s Hebrew Association from assessments and water rates.
1898: New York State Senator Jacob A. Cantor addressed a meeting organized by the Merchant’s Association of New York where he spoke against transferring the control of the canal system of the State to the Federal Government and in favor of a passage of the seven million dollar appropriation bill, known as the Cantor-Hill bill, which would preserve the states control over its canal properties which are estimated to exceed a hundred million dollars in value,
1899(15th of Nisan, 5659): Last Pesach of the 19th century.
1899: It was reported today that Ferdinand Blumenthal “recently described to the Academie des Sciences of Paris a process of making sugar from albumen which throw light on the obscure disease known as diabetes.”
1899: The New York Times reported that “the Jewish Feast of the Passover began with sundown last evening. Services were held in all synagogues and also many private residences the festival will last one week, during which time services will be held daily.”
1900(25th of Adar II, 5660): Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise passed away at the age of 80. The German born Wise is remembered as the father of Reform Judaism in the United States. He was instrumental in founding the three basic organization of the movement: Union of American Hebrew Congregations in 1873, Hebrew Union College in 1875 and the Central Conference of American Rabbis in1889.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/IWise.html
1902: Zalman Shapira and Rosa Krupnik gave birth to Israeli political leader Haim-Moshe Shapira
1902: The Roumanian government prohibited Jews from engaging in handicrafts or trade.
1904: Funk and Wagnalls published the sixth volume of the Jewish Encyclopedia, a compendium of knowledge that will eventually consist of twelve volumes. The volume includes articles ranging from “God” to “Istria.”
1904: The New York Times featured a review of "The Seder Service" a new Haggadah by Lillie Goldsmith Cowen which was published by her husband Philip Cowen. This edition of the Haggadah contains the Hebrew text, a revised English translation and notes by Dr. Solomon Schechter, the President of the Jewish Theological Seminary. The Haggadah is decorated with reproduction of pages from older Haggadot some which were printed four hundred years ago.
1905: Birthdate of Viktor E. Frankl, famed psychiatrist, Holocaust survivor and author of one of the greatest books ever written, Man’s Search For Meaning. What makes Frankl’s work and philosophy so powerful is that he took them with him into the camps and came out with his philosophy intact. There would be no better way to celebrate this centennial than read or re-read this slender tome. Viktor Frankl in his own words: “The best of us did not return.” “Life is like being at the dentist. You always think that the worst is still to come, and yet it is over already.” Quoting Nietzsche he wrote, “He who has a why to live for can bear with almost any how.” “Man, however is able to live and even to die for the sake of his ideals and values!” “Man needs something for the sake of which to live. The first goal of most people “was finding a purpose and meaning to their lives.” “Don’t aim at success – the more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side-effect of one’s personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one’s surrender to a person other than oneself. Happiness must happen, and the same holds for success; you have to let it happen by not caring about it…Success will follow you precisely because you had forgotten to think of it.”
1907: Today marked the last day of this year’s distribution of free Matzoth and Matzah flour by the East Side Business Men’s Protective Business Association the poor Jews of the lower east side.
1911: Birthdate of Sir Bernard Katz who shared in the 1970 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
1911: In London, two actions are to be heard before Justice Darling in a libel suit "in which Baron de Forest, adopted son of the late Baron Hirsch and Lady Gerard are principals."
1912: Osip Brik married Lila Kagan
1913: Birthdate of mathematician Paul Erdos. “Never, mathematicians say, has there been an individual like Paul Erdös. He was one of the century's greatest mathematicians, who posed and solved thorny problems in number theory and other areas and founded the field of discrete mathematics, which is the foundation of computer science. He was also one of the most prolific mathematicians in history, with more than 1,500 papers to his name. And, his friends say, he was also one of the most unusual.” (I make no claim to understand anything about any of his work.
1915: The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that the officers of Congregation Ahev Zedak in Camden, NJ were Bernard Levin, President; Jacob Tarter, Vice President; Louis Levin, Secretary and Max Greenberg, Teasurer.
1913: On the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City Nathan and Sophie Riesel gave birth to crusading journalist Victor Riesel.
1914: The siege of Adrianople which had begun in October, 1913, came to an end. Both poor and middle class Jews were affected with three thousand seeking shelter in schools and 9,200 being left “completely helpless.”
1916: Birthdate of Christian Anfinsen winner of the 1972 Nobel Prize for Chemistry
1916: Birthdate of British composer and conductor Harry Rabinowitz
1916: Birthdate of bandleader Vic Schoen. There is no evidence that Schoen was Jewish but he played a key role in the creation of the era of Yiddish Swing. Schoen was the bandleader whose featured singers were the Andrews Sisters. Lyricist Sammy Cahn gave the Yiddish song “Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen” English lyrics and turned it over to the singing sisters. Schoen had a notion of how to swing it. The Andrews Sisters' debut 78 rpm for the Decca label hit almost immediately. The era of Yiddish swing had begun.
1916: Birthdate of Mort Abrahams. Abrahams gained famed as the producer of Dr. Doolittle and Planet of the Apes.
1917: In World War I, British troops are halted after 17,000 Turks blocked their advance at the First Battle of Gaza. The setback would prove to be temporary and the British would later resume their drive to take Palestine from the Ottomans.
1920: Shabelsky-Bork, a “supporter” of the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion" tried to assassinate Pavel Milyukov (former leader of the Cadets, who fled Russia in 1918) at a meeting of Russian refugees. Instead, he killed Vladimir Nabokov and was sentenced to fourteen years in prison. After only staying in prison for a short time, he was released and befriended by Alfred Rosenberg, the "Nazi philosopher".
1923(9th of Nisan, 5683): Actress Sarah Bernhardt passed away. She was born in Paris as Henriette Rosine Bernard, the eldest surviving illegitimate daughter of Judith van Hard, a Dutch Jewish courtesan known as "Youle."
1925(1st of Nisan, 5685): Rosh Chodesh Nisan
1925: Lord Balfour visited Rishon L”Zion where he said “he rejoiced at this opportunity to visit the oldest Jewish settlement in Palestine.
1926: Birthdate of Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan
1929(14thof Adar II, 5689): Last Purim before the Great Depression
1929: The dirigible Graf Zeppelin appeared over three cities in Palestine. At five in the afternoon it circled Jaffa where the large colony of German settlers waved flags of welcome. At six, the airship appeared over Tel Aviv where it became a welcome partner in the city’s Purim celebrations. As night descended the German craft circled Jerusalem for an hour before heading north towards Syria.
1930 In London, Lord Melchett, Chaim Weizmann, Oscar Wasserman, Felix Warburg and Max Warburg will meet this afternoon in an “attempt to reach a settlement regarding the functions of the Administrative Committee and the Jewish Agency's Executive, the immediate raising of an internal loan of $5,000,000, and Lord Melchett's demand that before any larger colonization scheme be undertaken in Palestine, the 1,500 Chalutzim in Palestine for many years be settled on the land.” (As reported by JTA)
1931: Birthdate of Leonard Nimoy, Mr. Spock of Star Trek fame. Do you remember the hand gesture that went with the Vulcan credo - Live long and prosper? In case you missed it, it is the same gesture as that made by the High Priest when giving his benediction. And now you know why.
1931: Arab leaders in Palestine urged Moslems not to participate in the celebration Maier Dizengoff’s seventieth birthday. Dizengooff is the Mayor of Tel Aviv.
1934: Twenty-eight year old Nathan N. Rosen was officially installed as the Rabbi at Temple Petach Tikva in Brooklyn. (As reported by JTA)
1934: Hitler agreed to a nationwide boycott of Jewish businessmen and professionals to be known as “Boycott Day” which would take place on April 1. The boycott is designed to last indefinitely or until the Jews have been completely eliminated from the German economy.
1934: Birthdate of actor Alan Arkin. Arkin has played a myriad of roles during his long career including the lead in the famed anti-establishment film “Catch-22.”
1937: The Palestine Post reported that a Jewish Ghaffir (supernumerary policeman) was wounded, an Arab brigand killed and a number of Arabs taken prisoner during a battle with a terrorist gang which attacked Jewish settlers plowing their fields at the foot of Mount Tabor. Jewish settlers were assisted by police reinforcements which arrived from Afula and Nazareth.
1940: Birthdate of James Langston Michael Caan. This son of refugees from Nazi Germany is known to American audiences as the movie and television actor James Caan
1942: Birthdate of Erica Jong, author of Fear of Flying
1942: The first "Eichmann transport" began moving to the camps at Auschwitz and Birkenau
1942: The first of 700 Jews from Polish Lvov-district reached the concentration camp at Belzec
1942 The first Jewish transportation arrived at Aushwitz under the command of Rudolf Hoss, containing 1000 Jews from Slovakia and 1000 women from Ravensbruk. According to a conservative estimate from March 1942 until the liberation on January 27 1945 over 750,000 Jews were gassed within its gates. Hoss himself estimated it at 1,135,000
1943: Wilfrid B. Israel, a German born Jew and ardent Zionist departed London for Lisbon. Once in Portugal he stayed in the Iberian Peninsula for two months, where he found over 1,500 stateless Jews in Spain. He issued 200 of them certificates to go live in Palestine, and did what he could to intervene on the other's behalf.
1944: The twenty-third Beth El Ball was held this evening at the Walt Whitman Hotel in Camden, NJ. It was dedicated "to our fighting allies".
1944: The New York Times includes a review of "Dangling Man" by Saul Bellow
1945: General Patton sent 307 officers and men in tanks, half-tracks and support vehicles under the command of Captain Abraham J. Baum on a mission to liberate approximately 1,300 POWS being held at a camp near Hammelburg, Germany. The group of POWs included Patton’s son-in-law who had been captured during fighting in North Africa. In the words of historian Stanley Weintraub, “Nine GIs in Baum’s small column were killed and 31 others were wounded and captured – a hairy business for Baum as his dog tag identified him as Jewish.”
1949: Birthdate of Helene Middleweek who as Valerie Hayman, Baroness Hayman, became the Lord Speaker of the House of Lords in the Parliament of the United Kingdom.
1950: Lafayette College in Easton, PA announced that its round the world student tour this summer which is designed to increase their “intellectual, cultural and spiritual horizons” will include a stop in Tel Aviv.
1950: Ir was reported today that the government of Israel is using the Israel Institute of Applied Social Research under the direction of Dr. Uriel G. Foa to deal with a variety of problems facing the infant Jewish state including assisting immigrants in adjusting to life in “their new homeland.”
1952: The Jerusalem Post reported that the anti-reparations demonstration in Tel Aviv, organized by the Herut political party, lasted two hours and passed off quietly after a week of general tension. At The Hague the Conference on Reparations started discussing the respective Jewish claims on Germany. The German delegation contested the Jewish claim for $500 million as "exaggerated," while the Jewish delegation claimed that the sum was "only a fraction" of the heirless property actually remaining in German hands.
1952: The Jerusalem Post reported that The Knesset debated the final reading of the Nationality Bill and the principle of dual nationality, held by a number of Israeli citizens.
1952: The Jerusalem Post reported that The Israeli-Jordanian Mixed Armistice Commission reaffirmed the Israel-Jordan demarcation line in the Kalkilya area. The line was marked by a deep ditch, dug by a tractor to prevent further infiltration and other incidents
1953: Dr Jonas Salk announced a new vaccine to prevent polio.
1960: Birthdate of actress Jennifer Gray, star of Dirty Dancing. She is the daughter of actor Joel Gray and the granddaughter of comedian and musician Mickey Katz.
1960: Birthdate of Steve Feinberg the Princeton graduate who is the co-founder of Cerberus Capital Management.
1964: Birthdate of comedian Todd Barry
1964: "Funny Girl" with Barbra Streisand opens at Winter Garden Theater in New York City for the first of 1,348 performances
1967(14th of Adar II, 5727): Joseph Jacobs, president and founder of Joseph Jacobs Organization, a merchandizing and advertising organization that specializes in the Jewish mark and “has been credited with being responsible for the wide currency of kosher symbols on food labels” passed away today at the age of 75. A 1911 graduate of City College, Mr. Jacobs taught school while doing graduate work at Columbia before going to work as an advertising salesman for the Daily Forward in 1919, the same year that he founded his own company. Mr. Jacobs’ most lasting contribution to American Jewry is the famous Maxwell House Hagaddah.
1970: "Minnie's Boys" opened at the Imperial Theater. Minnie’s boys were better known as the Marx Brothers.
1971: Outbreak of the nine month long Bangladesh Liberation War. A Jewish military leader, Lieutenant General JFR (Jacob-Farj-Rafael) Jacob gained fame in his homeland when he headed the Indian armed forces that vanquished the Pakistani army in the war that broke out between the two countries over East Pakistan which after the war became the independent state of Bangladesh).
1979: Prime Minister Menachem Begin of Israel and President Anwar Sadat signed a peace treaty at the White House. This historic event ended three decades of fighting including three major wars. It took Sadat to break the “Gordian Knot” and come to Jerusalem. It took Begin to gamble that the Egyptians would keep their word and not turn the Sinai into a springboard for another war. And it took Carter's tenacity to keep the talks on track. All Arabs are not the same. Likud, right wingers, are willing to make peace. And American Presidents can provide the leverage for agreement. Critics say it has been a cold peace. But the border between the two has comparatively remained tranquil and the armed forces of the two nations have not clashed in a quarter of century. Hatikvah - hope.
1984(22ndof Adar II, 5744): Seventy-one year old Bora Laskin passed away while serving as the 14th Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in Canada.
1987: U.S. President Jimmy Carter visited Jerusalem. Former Prime Minister Begin who has been living in virtual seclusion for years declined Carter’s request for a meeting. Begin did visit with the President by phone.
2000: U.S. President Bill Clinton meets with Syrian President Hafez Assad.
2000: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or special interest to Jewish readers including The Operator: David Geffen Builds, Buys, and Sells the New Hollywood by Tom King and The Genesis of Justice:Ten Stories of Biblical Injustice That Led to the Ten Commandments and Modern Law by Alan M. Dershowitz
2001: Dalia Rabin-Pelossof became the only member of New Way to remain in the Knesset when two other New Members resigned from the Israeli Parliament.
2002(12th of Nisan, 5762): Chaike Belchatowska Spiegel, one of the last surviving combatants of the 1943 Warsaw ghetto uprising against the Nazis, died in Montreal at the age of 81. She had been hospitalized for about two years, her family said. Probably no more than 10 other combatants from the uprising are still alive, said her son-in-law, Eugene Orenstein, who teaches modern Jewish history at McGill University in Montreal. In January 1943, Chaike Belchatowska joined the Jewish Fighting Organization, known by its Polish acronym ZOB, which had been formed the previous year to resist the deportation of Jews from the ghetto to the Treblinka extermination camp by the Nazi forces that had overrun Poland in 1939. On April 19, the first night of the Jewish feast of Passover on the secular calendar, a Nazi force, equipped with tanks and artillery and under the command of Col.Ferdinand von Sammern-Frankenegg, entered the ghetto to resume the deportations, which had been suspended in January after running into stiff resistance. This time the Nazis were repulsed from the ghetto altogether, suffering heavy losses at the hands of the ZOB and other resistance groups, all of them poorly armed with only a few smuggled guns, little ammunition and homemade gasoline bombs. Colonel Sammern-Frankenegg was relieved of his command and replaced by Gen. Jürgen Stroop, who attacked again. But the Nazi forces found themselves blocked once more by fierce Jewish resistance after several days of vicious street fighting. The Germans then changed tactics and, using flame throwers, began systematically burning down the houses of the ghetto. The ZOB headquarters fell on May 8, but sporadic resistance continued into June and July. Meanwhile, Ms. Belchatowska, together with her husband-to-be, Boruch Spiegel, the leader of a ZOB fighting unit, and some 50 other Jewish resistance fighters, managed to escape from the ghetto to the forests outside Warsaw; from there, they continued to harass the Germans until the end of the war. After the Germans were driven from Poland by Soviet troops, Ms. Belchatowska and Mr. Spiegel moved to Sweden, where they married and where their son Chil, or Julius, was born. In late 1948 they went to Montreal after failing to obtain a visa for the United States. Chaike Belchatowska Spiegel, who was often known in English as Helen, was born in Warsaw. Her parents separated shortly afterward, and she was raised by her mother, who was an active Jewish socialist. She inherited much of her mother's political philosophy, becoming a member of the Jewish Labor Bund, an organization founded in Czarist Russia to promote a brand of Marxist socialism that would provide cultural autonomy for Jews. After the first mass deportations from the Warsaw ghetto in the summer of 1942, she encouraged Jews to resist being moved by every means possible. She helped circulate a Yiddish-language paper warning that their real destination would be Treblinka and that the Nazis were lying when they encouraged volunteers by promising them more food and greater freedom. In November of that year, she herself was herded onto a train bound for Treblinka but managed to break out of a cattle car and escape back to the ghetto. After moving to Montreal, Mrs. Spiegel and her husband ran a business making purses and other leather goods. She is survived by her husband; their son, Julius, who is the Brooklyn parks commissioner, and their daughter, Mindy Spiegel of Montreal.
2003: Rabbi Janet Marder was named president of the Reform Movement's Central Conference of American Rabbis. This meant that she had become the first woman to lead a major rabbinical organization.
2005: Robert Iger reassigned Peter Murphy, the Disney’s chief strategic officer, and pledged to disband the company's strategic planning division. Iger also vowed to restore much of the decision-making authority that the division had assumed to the company's individual business units.
2006: The Jerusalem Post reported that The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) strongly condemned the Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, for remarks urging two leading Jewish property developers to "go back to Iran and try their luck with the ayatollahs, if they don't like the planning regime or my approach." The two property developers, brothers Simon and David Reuben, are of Iraqi Jewish origin and were born in India. Both are British citizens. Mr. Livingstone has refused calls for an apology. Instead, he stated: "I would offer a complete apology to the people of Iran to the suggestion that they may be linked in any way to the Reuben brothers. I wasn't meaning to be offensive to the people of Iran."
2006: The New York Times featured a review of "My Father is a Book: A Memoir of Bernard Malamud" by Janna Malamud Smith.
2008: In Jerusalem, The Bible Lands Museum English lecture series presents: "The Classical Islamic Attitude to Jerusalem," by Professor Moshe Sharon of Hebrew University
2008: Haaretz reported that in a rare departure from government practice, Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah is planning to convene an interfaith conference for Muslims, Christians and Jews, according to the Saudi-owned Al-Sharq al-Awsat newspaper. The call for religious dialog to include Jews is the first by the monarch, whose country's regulations prohibit the importation of non-Muslim religious objects including crucifixes and stars of David.
2008: Two people were lightly wounded and nine were in shock after Palestinians fired a volley of Kassam rockets at Sderot. Six rockets were lobbed at Sderot, two of them landing inside the town. Security forces were trying to locate the other four rockets.
2008: The Israel Defense Forces captured a senior Hamas terrorist who helped mastermind the 2002 suicide bombing at a Passover Seder at Park Hotel in Netanya, in which 29 people were killed and nearly 150 others wounded. Omar Jabar, who headed Hamas' military wing in the West Bank city of Tul Karm, was among seven wanted Palestinians already detained by the IDF.
2008: Students at Haifa University expressed their anger today after the university decided to schedule tests on the Holocaust Memorial Day, some during the siren that marks a moment of silence. The students, many which have family members who died in the holocaust, are demanding that the tests be canceled.
2009: Israeli culinary writer Janna Gur gives a lecture on the Cuisine of Israel at the College of Technology in New York City accompanied by a cooking demonstration by students
2009 (1st of Nisan 5769): Rosh Chodesh Nisa
2010: Keren Ann Zeidel is scheduled to perform at The City Winery in New York City.
2010: In Washington, D.C., Robyn Helzner, one of the leading interpreters of world Jewish music, and Cantor Larry Paul are scheduled to lead a Carlebach-inspired service at the Sixth & I Historic Synagogue.
2010(11th of Nisan,5770): Major Eliraz Peretz 31, from Kiryat Arba, who was the deputy commander of the Golani battalion and Staff Sergeant Ilan Sviatkovsky, 21, from Rishon Letzion were killed during fighting on the Gaza border today. Peretz’s brother had been killed while fighting in Lebanon.
2011: In Rockville, MD, Tikvat Israel Congregation is scheduled to sponsor an old fashioned Sock Hop.
2011: “The Infidel” and “Vidal Sasoon: The Movie” are scheduled to be shown at the Westchester Jewish Film Festival.
2011: “Berlin '36” is scheduled to be shown on opening night of the Hartford Jewish Film Festival.
2011(20th of Adar II): Eighty-six year old “Stanley Bleifeld, a figurative sculptor whose bronzes adorn the National Baseball Hall of Fame, the Navy Memorial in Washington and museums including the Museum of the City of New York” passed away today.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/03/arts/design/stanley-bleifeld-sculptor-for-navy-and-baseball-hall-of-fame-dies-at-86.html
2011(20th of Adar II): Ninety-four year old internet pioneer Paul Baran passed away. (As reported by Katie Hafner)
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/28/technology/28baran.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=Paul%20Baran&st=cse
2012: The 16th Annual Hartford Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to host a “Book and Film” event commemorating the Kindertransport.
2013(15thof Nisan, 5773): First Day of Pesach
2013:In the evening numerous congregations are scheduled to host community Seders including Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids, Agudas Achim in Iowa City and Kol Ami in Arlington, VA