March 3 In History
321: Roman Emperor Constantine named Sunday which had been a Roman pagan day for honoring the sun as a day of rest. This was an attempt by Constantine to close the gap between pagans and Christianity and to isolate the Jews. Constantine’s day of rest should not be confused with the Jewish Sabbath which was a universal day of rest.
561: The Papacy of Pelagius I came to an end. He owed his election to Justinian I, the emperor whose religious program included placing restrictions on Jews and interfering with their practices by trying to force them to substitute the Greek Septuagint for the TaNaCh.
1186: Saladin takes control of the city of Mosul which at that time had a Jewish population of approximately 7,000 souls which had been led by Zakkai ha-Nais “who claimed to be a descendant of King David.” (As reported by the Jewish Encyclopedia)
1337: Levi ben Gershon, better known by his Latinised name as Gersonides or the abbreviation of first letters as RaLBaG Levi observed a solar eclipse today.
1619(17th of Adar, 5379): Shlomo Ephraim ben Aaron Luntschitz passed away. Born at Lenczyk in 1550 he “a rabbi, poet and Torah commentator, best known for his Torah commentary Keli Yakar.” (For more see Seeing with Both Eyes: Ephraim Luntshitz and the Polish-Jewish Renaissance by Leonard S. Levin)
1658: Dr. Jacob Lumbrozo, the first Jew to settle in Maryland was given amnesty by Oliver Cromwell. Lumbrozo had been indicted on charges of blasphemy which was a capital offense.
1799: The French army under the command of Napoleon Bonaparte reached the outskirts of Jaffa. The army had left for Palestine on the first of February in an attempt to forestall a Turco-British invasion through the Palestinian land-bridge. A division under the command of General Kleber deployed along the shores of the river Yarkon, 10 kms north of the town and was responsible for shielding the besieging forces from hostile interference. This military action had nothing to do with the Jewish people. It was another example of the land of the Jews being a battleground because it was the land bridge between Africa, Asia and indirectly, Europe.
1801: David Emanuel took office as the Governor of Georgia. Emanuel was the first Jewish person to serve as a governor in the United States. Emanuel was appointed to serve the last eight months of the term of his predecessor who had assumed a seat in the U.S. Senate. Born in Pennsylvania in 1743, he passed away in 1808.
1811: Birthdate of Bernhard Wolff, the German journalist and editor who founded Wolffs Telegraphisches Bureau which was the German version of Rueters (British) and Havas (French).
1814: Birthdate of Charles Kensington Salaman, the native of London who gained fame as pianist and composer.
1833: Birthdate of Mendel Hirsch, the German born Bible commentator and poet who was the son of Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch.
1845: Florida becomes the 27th state to join the Union.” In 1763, the first recorded Jews in Florida came to Pensacola, in the northwest corner of the territory. More Jews moved to north Florida in the next few decades, but the Jewish population remained small during this time, numbering no more than a dozen individuals. When Florida became a state, there were less than 100 Jews in a population of 66,500. The first U.S. Senator from Florida was a Jew, David Levy Yulee.” For more about the history of the Jews of Florida see
http://www.floridajewish.com/florida_jewish_history.php
1849: The United States Department of the Interior is established. Joel D. Wolfsohn who served as Assistant Secretary of the Department from in the final months of the Truman Administration appears to be the highest ranking Jew to have served at the Department of the Interior. He served from July 10, 1952 through February 20, 1953.
1851: David Levy Yulee completed his first terms as a United States Senator from Florida. He was the first Jew to sit in the Upper Chamber of the U.S. Congress. Yulee was also the last Jew in his family line since he married a gentile and raised the children in the faith of their mother. Yulee would not only turn his back on his religion, he would turn his back on his country and join the Confederacy during the Civil War.
1852: Birthdate of Sir Ernest Joseph Cassel British merchant banker and capitalist. Born in Cologne, Germany, the son of Jacob Cassel, who owned a small bank, Cassel arrived penniless in Liverpool, England in 1869 and found employment with a firm of grain merchants. With an enormous capacity for hard work and a natural business sense, Cassel was soon in Paris working for a bank. The Franco-Prussian War forced him to move to a position in a London bank, as he was born in Prussia. He prospered and was soon putting together his own financial deals. His areas of interest were in mining, infrastructure and heavy industry. Turkey was an early area of business ventures, but he soon had large interests in Sweden, the United States, South America, South Africa, and Egypt. One of the wealthiest men of his day, Cassel was a good friend of King Edward VII as well as of Prime Minister Herbert Asquith and the young Winston Churchill. In 1878, he married Annette Mary M. Maxwell at Westminster He became a Roman Catholic at the behest of his wife, Annette, but was always thought of as a Jew. The establishment was shocked to find out on his death that he had converted many years before. A few months after his death in 1921, Cassel's estate was probated at £6,000,000
1861: Alexander II of Russia signs the Emancipation Manifesto, freeing serfs.
1862: During the American Civil War, David Yulee, barely avoided capture by Union troops who were attacking Fernandina FL. Yulee was the first Jew to be elected to the United States. When Florida left the Union and joined the Confederacy, Yulee resigned from the U.S. Senate and took a seat in the southern Congress.
1863: During the American Civil War, Alfred Mordecai, Jr. was promoted to the rank of Captain in the Union Army.
1870: Arguments resumed this morning in the matter revolving around the will of the late Simeon Abraham, the New York physician and Jewish civic leader whose bequests exceeded the value of his estate. The executor is seeking a court order in how to resolve the shortfall while several of the beneficiaries are seeking to protect their interests.
1871: In New York, the remodeled sanctuary of Shaarey Tzedek was dedicated today. The building, which is located on Henry Street, was bought by the Jewish congregation from Quakers in 1840. The remodeling was necessitated by the growth of the congregation.
1874(14th of Adar, 5634): Purim
1874: As a group of temperance crusaders marched through Columbus, Ohio looking for support it was rebuffed by various merchants and other locals including a group of German Jews who taughtened them with offers of free beer. [Could the beer drinking Jews have been Purim revelers?]
1875: William Sprague completed his 12 year career as a United States Senator from Rhode Island. During a debate in the United States Senate on the massacre of Jews of Romania, Sprague said “the facts would show that the Jews of Romania had possessed themselves of nearly all the land and of all of the trade of the that principality while a vast population of Christians there were deprived of their means of support..” He said that this “would be found to be the cause of the recent outbreak” and that that this experience should provide “food for profound reflection…in regard to conditions…in our own country.
1877: It was reported today that a Reuter’s dispatch from Constantinople the Greeks are upset with the outcome of the election held in that city to choose delegates for the Ottoman Parliament because the of the five non-Muslims chosen the Greeks got the same number as the Jews – one – with the other three going to Armenians
1877: It was reported that a dispatch from the Daily News that one Jew was among the 10 delegates elected to serve in the Ottoman Parliament. Of the remaining delegates, 5 were Turks and 4 were Christians – a result that the Daily News said “caused no excitement.” [Editor’s Note – no matter which version you prefer, for the Jews the important item was that they were an accepted part of the electoral process as the Porte lurched toward a more open form of government.]
1878: Following the Russo-Turkish War, Bulgaria regained its independence from Ottoman Empire. The rights of the Jews of Bulgaria, along with other religious minorities, were guaranteed by the Treaty of Berlin. The treaty guarantee did not protect from outbreaks of anti-Semitic violence, blamed in part on the erroneous notion that the Jews had supported the Ottomans. Bulgaria was never very hospitable to its Jewish population. On the other hand, Bulgaria managed to avoid shipping most of its Jewish population to concentration camps.
1878: In New York City, Meyer S. Isaacs presided over a meeting of prominent Jewish leaders including rabbis, synagogue presidents and representatives of Jewish benevolent societies. Those attending the meeting which was held at the 34th Street Synagogue discussed ways of raising funds to aid the suffering Jews of Turkey and the East during the current hostilities. A proposal to by the Ball Committee to hold a masked ball at the end of March as a fundraiser was rejected and a more direct approach for appealing for funds was adopted.
1878: Rabbi D.C. Lewin delivered a well-received lecture on “The Life and Character of Moses Mendelssohn” at the Young Men’s Hebrew Union in New York City this evening.
1878: Birthdate of German-born expressionist theatrical producer and director Leopold Jessner. Jessner left Germany in 1933. His life was saved but his career was over. He passed away in 1945.
1878: “Macklin in the Merchant of Venice” published today described the decision of great 18th century thespian Charles Macklin to play the role of Shylock in the manner of a serious character. Despite the doubts of others, Macklin was so successful that he reprised it hundreds of times. No other actor even came close to his portrayal of this Jewish figure until Edmund Kean took up the role in the 19th century. Of Macklin’s portrayal, Alexander Pope, the great English poet wrote, “This is the Jew, That Shakespeare Drew.”
1878: In Philadelphia, PA, “Hebrew School No. 2 opened today in a synagogue building” at “fifth and Catherine Streets. The school would later move to Wheatley Hall before finding its final home at Touro Hall. (As reported by Cyrus Adler and David Sulzberger)
1879: Jewish financier and businessman Joseph Seligman was among the major stockholders of the St. Louis and San Francisco who arrived in St. Louis this morning prior to tomorrow’s meeting during which a new Board of Directors will be elected
1880: It was reported today that the first edition of the “Oriental and Biblical Journal” edited by Stephen D. Peet has been issued in Chicago, Illinois. [Peet served as a pastor to several Congregational and Presbyterian Churches in the Middle West. He had a passion for archeology which he used in his Biblical studies. He was one of a series of English and American clergyman who tied the study of Archeology with Biblical Scholarship; a connection that late would become a national pastime of the Zionists.]
1889: The Temple Emanu-El Sisterhood was incorporated today by several leading Jewesses including Mrs. Theodora G. Levy, Mrs. Cordeilia Schnitzer and Mrs. Theresa Sidenberg.
1890: The Trustees of Columbia College met today and “acknowledged and accepted “ sever al gifts including “a valuable collection of Hebrew manuscripts from” Oscar S. Straus, the former American minister to Turkey.
1891: It was reported today that the New York Siberian Exile Petition Association will be forwarding a petition to the Czar in April “protesting against the present treatment of the Jews.”
1891: “Priests and Rabbis Barred” published today described an attempted Dr. T.T. Eaton, “a liberal Baptist preacher” to have the Louisville Ministerial Association admit Catholic and Jewish clergy as members. His motion failed in 14 to 12 vote.
1892: President James H. Hoffman presided over tonight’s meeting of The Hebrew Technical Institute which was held at Temple Emanu-El in New York City.
1892(4th of Adar, 5652): Joseph Ratner, a Russian Jewish immigrant who has been married for two months shot himself this afternoon. He was believed to have been despondent over health problems.
1893: Birthdate of Salvator Cicurel “an Egyptian Olympic fencer, who competed in the individual and team épée and team foil events at the 1928 Summer Olympics.”
1893: Forty-two year old Sigmund Hyman was taken from Mount Sinai Hospital and sent to North Brother Island because he was suffering from typhus fever.
1893: The New York Auxiliary to the Jewish Section of the Woman’s Branch of the Parliament of Religions is scheduled to resume its meeting today at the home of Mrs. Scholle where they will continue making plans for the papers they will be presenting at the upcoming World’s Fair. The members include Mrs. Oscar Straus, Mrs. Jacob Schiff, Mrs. Simon Borg, Mrs. Isidor Wormser, Mrs. Jesse Selgiman and Mrs. Alexander Kohut, the wife of Rabbi Alexander Kohut.
1894: Policemen Fay and Schultz came to Shearith Israel to investigate reports that “there was a crazy man in the synagogue.”
1895: Birthdate of Rabbi Moshe Feinstein. Born in Uzda, Belorussia "Reb Moshe" was the leading authority on Orthodox Jewish religious law (Halacha) during the last century. He served as a Rabbi of Luban, near Minsk starting in 1921 before coming to the United States in 1937. In 1938, he was named Rosh Yeshiva (Dean) of Mesivta Tiferes Yerushalayim, a New York yeshiva a position he held until 1986, the year he passed away. As his reputation grew, his rulings on religious law came to be accepted worldwide. A multi-volume collection of his letters, Igros Moshe, is considered authoritative among Orthodox Jews with regard to moral and ethical issues. He served President of the Union of Orthodox Rabbis of the United States and Canada, 1968-1986, Chairman, American Branch, Mo'ezet Gedolei ha-Torah of Agudat Yisrael, the Council of Torah Sages, and was acknowledged as the Gadol Ha-Dor, or preeminent individual of his generation of Jewish scholars.
1896: Professor Felix Adler will deliver a lecture entitled “Moral Aspects of the Question” at the opening session of a conference on Improved Housing being held at the United Charities Building.
1902(24TH of Adar, 5662): Isaac Conquy Abecassis, a native of the Azores born in 1840 passed away today at Var, France
http://www.abecasis.info/genpt2_isaac.htm
1903: Congress passed legislation aimed at curbing immigration to the United States. The bill required immigrants to pay a two dollar head tax (a considerable sum in those days for poor immigrants). It also gave immigration officers the right to exclude those whom they deem anarchists or as people who believe in or advocate the overthrow of the United States government. The legislation was obviously aimed at immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe, including the large Jewish populations in the Russian and Austro-Hungarian empires.
1903: Senator Joseph Simon, Oregon Republican, finishes his term in the U.S. Senate. Simon returned to Portland, Oregon where he resumed his law practice and would serve as may from 1909 to 1911.
1903: Despite “all the pressure that has been brought to bear to induce him to reconsider,” the leaders of Temple Beth-El reluctantly accepted the resignation of Dr. Kaufmann Kohler from his position as Rabbi of New York’s leading Reform congregation.
1905: In the wake of the defeat by Japan and the Russian Revolution, Czar Nicholas II agreed to create an elected assembly, the Duma.
http://www.jewishgen.org/databases/Ukraine/KievDuma.htm
1907: Charles Grosvenor completed his 14 year career as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Ohio’s 11thdistrict. He was an opponent of immigration bills that specifically barred Russian Jews from coming to the United States.
1911(3rd of Adar, 5671): Rabbi Jacob de Botton leader of the Jewish community in Salonica passed away at the age 68.
1912: The New York Times publishes a review of Die Juden und das Wirtschaftsleben (The Jews in Economic Life) recently published in Germany by Prof. Werner Sombart, Professor of Political Economy at the Commercial High School of Berlin that includes the insights of Dr. Solomon Shechter.
1912(14th of Adar, 5672): Purim
1913: Birthdate of Harold Hochstein who gained fame as Harold J. Stone, the American actor who traveled from Broadway, to Hollywood to Television.
1915: As the 63rd session of the United States Congress, Jacob Cantor completed his term as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. He had been elected on November 4, 1913 to fill the vacancy of Francis Harrison (who was not Jewish). He lost to Issac Siegel who was Jewish and returned to his New York law practice. Siegel in turn would be replaced by that most famous of all New Yorkers, Fiorello H. LaGuardia, the son of a Jewish mother who was raised as a Yiddish speaking Italian Catholic.
1917: Djemal Pasha offers to give the Jews free access to the Western Wall in Jerusalem to pray if they provide the sum of 80,000-100,000 Francs.
1918: Germany and the new Communist government of Russia signed The Brest-Litovsk Treaty. This treat dismembered the Russian Empire and took Russia out of the war. This freed the German Army to shift all of its forces to the Western Front where the Kaiser’s forces tried for a knock-out blow that failed. The treaty helped bring on the Russian Civil War between the Whites and the Reds during which Jews were slaughtered by both sides. Also, the treaty resulted in western forces (U.S., English, etc.) sending troops to Russia. Once again, Jews were caught in the middle and suffered economic ruin and death.
1918: In New York City, Joseph and Lena Kornberg who had married in 1904 and emigrated to New York from Austrian Galicia gave birth to Arthur Kornberg US biochemist who synthesized artificial DNA. He received the Nobel Prize in 1959. He died in 2007 at the age of 89.
1918: Birthdate of famed photographer Arnold Newman.
1919: Emir Faisel writes a letter to Felix Frankfurter expressing his support for the Zionist cause. ”We Arabs...look with deepest sympathy on the Zionist Movement....We will wish the Jews a most hearty welcome… The Arabs, especially the educated among us, look with the deepest sympathy on the Zionist movement. Our deputation here in Paris is fully acquainted with the proposals submitted yesterday by the Zionist Organization to the Peace Conference, and we regard them as moderate and proper." The boundaries of Palestine shall follow the general lines set out below: Starting on the North at a point on the Mediterranean Sea in the vicinity South of Sidon and following the watersheds of the foothills of the Lebanon as far as Jisr el Karaon, thence to El Bire following the dividing line between the two basins of the Wadi El Korn and the Wadi Et Teim thence in a southerly direction following the dividing line between the Eastern and Western slopes of the Hermon, to the vicinity West of Beit Jenn, thence Eastward following the northern watersheds of the Nahr Mughaniye close to and west of the Hedjaz Railway. In the East a line close to and West of the Hedjaz Railway terminating in the Gulf of Akaba [will serve as the boundary]; in the South a frontier to be agreed upon with the Egyptian Government; in the West the Mediterranean Sea. The details of the delimitations, or any necessary adjustments of detail, shall be settled by a Special Commission on which there shall be Jewish representation. Emir Faisel fought against the Turks alongside T.E. Lawrence. Faisal was expecting to be able to control a Caliphate based in Damascus. As we can see here he had even worked out a plan with Chaim Weizmann that would have allowed for the creation of a Jewish home in Palestine. Unfortunately, the French, who controlled Syria after the war, drove Faisal from Damascus, ending his power and the dream of peace in the Middle East.
1919(1st of Adar II, 5679): Abraham (Albert) Antebi, head of the Alliance Israelite Universelle in Constantinople passed away. He was born at Damascus in 1899.
1919: Meyer London, one of only two members of the Socialist Party to be elected to the U.S. House of Representatives completed his term representing the 12th District of New York. He had defeated Henry M. Goldfogle, a Jew, for the seat and Goldfogle returned the favor.
1921: Birthdate of Allen Ginsberg beat generation poet. In 1969 he received the Arts & Letters Award.
1922: An Arab delegation “held a meeting…at the Hyde Park Hotel in London to denounce Britain’s ‘Zionist policy.’” The Secretary of the delegation was reported to have declared “the necessity of killing Jews if the Arabs did not get their way.”
1922: The schedules in the estate of Jacob H. Schiff, banker and philanthropist, who died Sept. 25, 1920, prepared for submission to the State Tax Commission in the inheritance tax proceeding to begin shortly, fix the value of the property to be taxed in New York State at $35,257,008. The net estate on which the executors estimate a tax will be fixed is $34,426,282.
1923: Meyer London completed his second, non-successive term as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives representing New York’s 12th District. He was followed in office by another Jewish politician, Samuel Dickstein.
1923: TIME magazine was published for the first time by Henry Luce. Jews connected with America’s leading weekly news magazine have included managing editors Henry Grunwald (1968–1977) and Walter Isaacson (1996–2000) and contributors Lev Grossman, Joe Klein and Joel Stein.
1929: In the Old City of Jerusalem, Rabbi Salman Eliyahu, a Jerusalem Kabbalist from an Iraqi Jewish family and his wife Mazal gave birth to Rabbi Mordechai Tzemach Eliyahu
1932: Judge Cutherbert W. Pound addressed Benjamin Cardozo on his last as Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals saying of the man who was about to become a U.S. Supreme Court Justice, “We shall miss not only the great Chief Judge whose wisdom and understanding have added glory to the judicial office but all the true man who has blessed us with the light of his friendship, the sunshine of his smile.”
1933: About a month after Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany and about a week after the burring of the Reichstag 100 prisoners were taken to a school in the small town of Norha near the city of Weimar. They were interrogated and sent into three large rooms where they guarded by policemen and students from the school. This was the start of Germany's first Concentration camp.
1937: In an address at the annual luncheon of the Women’s Division of the American Jewish Congress, Fiorello La Guardia suggested that Hitler’s effigy be placed in a chamber of horrors at the World’s Fair.
1938: Oil is discovered in Saudi Arabia. The connection with Jewish history should be self-evident.
1938(30th of Adar I, 5698): Rosh Chodesh Adar II
1938: Sholem (Samuel) Schwarzbard a Bessarabian-born Jewish poet and anarchist, known primarily for the assassination of the Ukrainian nationalist leader Symon Petliura who wrote poetry in Yiddish under the pen name of Baal-Khaloymes (English: The Dreamer) passed away today in Cape Town, South Africa.
http://forward.com/articles/14428/when-france-embraced-a-jewish-avenger-/
1938: The Palestine Post reported from London that the Colonial Secretary, Mr. Ormsby Gore, assured the House of Commons that Palestinian police, assisted by British troops, were doing everything possible to contain the deeply seated and widespread Arab terror.
1938: The Palestine Post reported that Yacoub Marata, an Arab police corporal, and Alfred Koblenz, a Jewish constable, were shot and badly wounded by Arab terrorists at a Haifa market.
1938: The Palestine Post reported that the Haifa Port inaugurated a new, extensive cargo jetty.
1939: Cardinal Pace III, a long time semi-supporter of the German government, became Pope Pius XII. He was later greatly criticized for his passive acceptance of the Final Solution.
1939: “The first contingent of about 500 Jews who had been expelled from Danzig left early this morning for an unknown destination. In a departure marked by “distressing farewell scenes” the contingent of men, women and children were taken to a German railway station by a convoy of buses and trucks. There are unconfirmed rumors that these homeless Jews will pass through Hungary to Constanta, Romania where a ship is waiting to take them to Tel Aviv. The Jews face the double whammy of the Nazis and the Arab inspired limits on Jewish immigration to Eretz Israel since no valid visas are available for this wretched contingent.
1940: When hundreds of Jewish women took to the streets of Tel Aviv today chanting “anti-land law slogans,” the British military commander issued an order imposing a total curfew that was scheduled to last for three days until.
1941(4th of Adar, 5701): Adolph Schwartz died from a heart attack today at the age of 74.
http://epcc.libguides.com/content.php?pid=309255&sid=2604789
1943(26th of Adar I, 5703): Judikje Simons, later Judikje Themans- Simons, died today at Sobibor, together with her husband, Bernard, their five-year-old daughter Sonja, and their three-year-old son Leon. Simons was one of six Jewish members of the Dutch Ladies’ Gymnastic Team that won the Olympic title at Amsterdam in 1928, Simons, who ran an orphanage with her husband in the city of Utrecht that housed 83 children, had apparently been warned that the Nazis were heading her way, and was offered a hiding place by Dutch friends. However, Simons had no intention of forsaking her orphans, sealing her fate, and that of almost all of the children.
1944: Birthdate of Yoram Jerrold Kessel, the South African born Israeli journalist and correspondent who gain fame with American audiences as the CNN correspondent reporting on the Middle East from Jerusalem.
1944: Emir Abdullah Ibn Husseein, ruler of Transjordan…cabled a bitter protest to President Roosevelt against the pending Senate resolution reaffirming United States approval of Palestine as Jewish national homeland.”
1944: Jermie Adler, a Jewish father of three who was hiding in village outside of Liege, Belgium became so ill that he checked himself into a hospital today. “While he was in the hospital, the Gestapo arrested his wife, two daughters, and a nephew.” Only his oldest daughter survived the war.
1945: The Jewish Infantry Brigade was activated as part of the British Army. Jewish military groups fought with distinction during World War II. These soldiers were drawn from the Yishuv - the Jewish community in what was then called Palestine. At the end of the war, some of these soldiers participated in daring rescue activities that brought survivors of the Holocaust from central Europe, through Italy and eventually to ships bound for Palestine. Military training gained by the Jewish troops proved useful when the Israelis converted from the small military unit tactics of the pre-Independence period to the larger operations necessary to defeat the invading armies they faced in 1948 and 1949.
1945: Eri Jabotinsky, son of the late Zionist Revisionist leader, Vladimir Jabotinsky, was released after two days in custody for interrogation concerning his “activities.”
1945: Over two thousand Jews from Ebensee, a sub-camp of Mauthausen were sent from Gross Rosen. Of them 49 died in the trains on the way and 182 more died upon arrival.
1946: The Union of American Hebrew Congregations, parent body of Reform Judaism in the United States, was urged today by Dr. Maurice N. Eisendrath, executive director, "to disassociate itself from dogmatic anti-Zionism."
1946: In an article about the appropriate ways to rehabilitate disabled WW II GI’s Dr. Howard Rusk reported that the number of “working-age males, who are either unemployable or marginally employable because of handicaps exceed, numerically, the Jewish population.” Such a comparison would indicate that the average American knows how many Jews live in the United States.
1947: Having left Poland for Paris in 1946 and Paris for the United States in February 1947, future novelis Louis Begley and his family arrived in New York City.
http://www.louisbegley.com/
1947: The four hundred ton “motor ship Susanna” left Italy carrying 800 Jewish refugees who hope to avoid the British blockade and find a home in Palestine.
1947: The Irgun gave proof to its announcement that open warfare exists between its forces and the British by attacking British military installations in Haifa with a barrage of 500 hand grenades.
1947: The Haganah accused the British of “deliberately destroying the Jewish economy” by imposing martial law on “thousands of people who have nothing whatsoever to do with terror or crime.”
1947: Lieutenant General G.H.A. MacMillan announced that the word “terrorist” would no longer be used to describe those Jews attacking the British in Palestine. The term had acquired a sense of “glamour” which should not be ascribed to people he said were no better than the gangsters from Al Capone’s Chicago.
1950(14th of Adar, 5710): Purim
1950: In the San Fernando Valley, California, Elaine Edelman, and Jay Ziskin gave birth to Laura Ziskin, the producer of “Spider Man” and “Pretty Woman.”
1950: In Jordan the cabinet has reportedly resigned because it was opposed to the non-aggression pact which has been secretly negotiated with Israel. King Abdullah is said to be the major supporter of the agreement.
1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that seven infiltrators from Jordan were killed in two separate incidents on Israeli territory. The Soviet ambassador to Egypt, Semyon Kozirev, invited the former mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin el-Husseini, to visit Moscow. The increased food rations for Pesach included an extra 100 grams of meat, a welcome addition to the monthly rate of 200 grams, and 290 grams of olive oil to every consumer. (As you can see from this entry, even without the attacks from Arab terrorists and the threat of attack from the surrounding Arab nations, the early settlers of Israel had a rough time of it.)
1956: Morocco gained its independence from France. "One of the first actions of the government was to order the Jewish agency to halt its emigration activities."
1957(30th of Adar I, 5717): Controversial Holocaust survivor Rudolf (Israel) Kastner, the man who negotiated with Eichmann to save Hungarian Jews was shot by by Zeev Eckstein, 24, a Holocaust survivor, and died of his injuries nine days later.
1959: Birthdate of Ira Glass, host of public radio’s “This American Life.”
1961: Hassan II becomes King of Morocco. When he came to the throne, Hassan II had a reputation as a playboy. Nobody would have predicted the positive role he would play in relations with Israel. The following story written when the King died in 1999 describes the impact of the Moroccan Monarch. “Tens of thousands of Israelis are mourning the death of Morocco's King Hassan II, a man they considered "their" king, leaving them homesick for the land their families left. Young Israelis of Moroccan origin placed the Moroccan flag on top of their cars, while others displayed huge posters in their homes of the king, who died last Friday of a heart attack at the age of 70. The Moroccan Jewish community in Israel declared a seven-day period of mourning for the king. A delegation led by Israeli President Ezer Weizman, Prime Minister Ehud Barak and former Prime Minister Shimon Peres joined 30 other world leaders, including President Clinton and Palestinian Authority leader Yasser Arafat, in remembering a man who played a vital role in bridging the gap between the Jewish state and the Arab world. In a condolence message, Weizman called Hassan a "true partner in the peace process.” Attending the funeral, Barak called Hassan a "great leader" and a "farsighted man, a friend to the governments of Israel in their voyage toward peace with the Arab people." In Israel, Moroccan Jews have traditionally supported parties, such as Likud or Shas that espouse hard-line policies toward the Arab countries. That is partly to compensate for the fact that they felt "Ashkenazi Jews regarded them as Jewish Arabs," according to Haim Shiran, director of Inbal, an ethnic center in Tel Aviv. He said anti-Arab political views were a kind of self-defense mechanism, a way to distinguish themselves from the Arabs. But when it came to the king's death, the reaction of Israel's estimated 300,000 Moroccan Jews appeared similar to Morocco's Arab residents, many of whom consider the king to be a direct descendent of the Muslim prophet Mohammad. "I know that it may sound ridiculous," said Shiran, "but when on Friday, I saw the Moroccan announcer on television announcing the death of the king, I broke out in tears." Hassan took power in 1961 after the death of his father, Mohammed V. When Hassan ascended to the throne, he was an unknown quantity with a reputation as a playboy. But ruling with a deft mixture of pro-Western democracy and traditional autocracy, he earned the respect of his people. He also survived several coup attempts. Mohammed V was widely credited with having saved Morocco's Jews from deportation during World War II, and Hassan continued the philo-Semitic policies of his father. Although there was an outbreak of anti-Jewish incidents following the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, the Jewish community was generally safe under the protection of both Mohammed and Hassan. When tens of thousands of Jews left Morocco in a massive aliyah that began after Morocco gained its independence in 1956 -- and accelerated after Hassan II gained power -- it was due as much to Zionism and a desire for economic opportunity as it was to a fear of anti-Semitism. Along with the recently deceased King Hussein of Jordan, Hassan was considered a moderate in the Middle East. During his 38-year reign, he discreetly, and later openly, promoted ties with Israel at a time when most of the Arab world rejected such contact. In the 1967 and 1973 Middle East wars, he contributed only a nominal number of troops to support Arab forces. His mediation efforts, including secret meetings with Israeli intelligence officials and political leaders, helped pave the way for the 1978 Camp David accord between Israel and Egypt. Hassan also played a role in preparing for the 1991 Madrid peace conference and welcomed Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in September 1993, making Morocco the first Arab nation outside of Egypt to officially host an Israeli leader. In 1994, Hassan hosted the first Middle East regional economic conference, which included Israel, in Casablanca. After the euphoria of the 1993 Oslo accords between Israel and the Palestinians, Israel was allowed to establish a consular office in Rabat, and an estimated 40,000 Israeli tourists visited Morocco in 1995 and 1996. Even in death Hassan provided an opportunity for Israeli and Arab officials to meet -- in this case, an unprecedented exchange among Barak, Israeli Foreign Minister David Levy and Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika. Speaking in French, Bouteflika asked Levy whether Israel was serious about peace, to which the Moroccan-born minister responded, "Yes." Levy added that it was in Israel's interest to do so and was ready to work hard to achieve it. Turning to Barak, Bouteflika said his country was willing to help in any way it could.
1968: Iraqi Prime Minister, Tahir Yahya, instituted a law that impoverished the Jews. "Jews couldn't sell their cars or furniture. All licenses given to Jewish pharmacists were canceled" and their pharmacies were ordered to close. "All commercial officers in Baghdad had to dismiss their Jewish employees. Muslim owned businesses were warned not to engage in commerce with Jews.
1969: In a Los Angeles, California court, Sirhan Sirhan admits that he killed presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy. According to his diaries, he killed Kennedy because he was a supporter of Israel.
1973: Senator Guy Gillette passed away. While serving in the Senate during World War II, Gillette spoke out in favor of caring for the Jewish refugees in Europe and in favor of Jewish aspirations in Palestine. After he lost his bid for re-election he served as “president of the American League for a Free Palestine, serving until the Committee's work ended with the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948.” [Why a senator from Iowa, a state with a miniscule Jewish population, would adopt such views is a mystery awaiting further study.]
1978: The Jerusalem Post reported from Washington that US President Jimmy Carter warned that “the abandonment” of UN Resolution 242 by any of the parties in the Middle East “would put us back many months or years.” Observers, however, noted that on the eve of the expected Carter-Begin summit meetings, the American position on many issues was seen to be much more supportive of Egypt than of Israel. In Jerusalem, the 91-year-old Notre Dame Hospice, uninhabited for years, had quietly begun a new life as a modern hostel for pilgrims.
1980: In “Tens of Thousands of People Attend Funeral of Yigal Allon” Yitzhak Shargil described the final ceremony honoring the fallen Israeli leader.
http://archive.jta.org/article/1980/03/03/2986837/tens-of-thousands-of-people-attend-funeral-of-yigal-allon
1981: Israeli planes raided Palestinian positions northeast of Tyre today, according to the Lebanese radio. The raid came a day after rockets from Lebanese territory struck several homes in the Galilee town of Qiryat Shemona today, wounding three people.
1983(18th of Adar, 5743): Hungarian born author Arthur Koestler passed away. Two of his more famous works were Darkness at Noon and Thirteenth Tribe, which highlighted his view of the role the Khazars played in the life of European Jewry.
1987(2nd of Adar, 5747): Multi-talented performer Danny Kaye passed away. Born David Kominsky in 1913, the red-headed comedian and vocalist enjoyed success in a variety of entertainment formats. His hit movies included The Secret Life of Walter Mitty and Hans Christian Andersen. He also starred in his own television variety show. He used his fame for the betterment of mankind serving as a champion for UNICEF when that organization was dedicated to welfare of the world's children without consideration to politics. (As reported by Eric Pace)
http://www.nytimes.com/1987/03/04/obituaries/danny-kaye-limber-limbed-commedian-dies.html?pagewanted=print&src=pm
1987: Israeli Air Force Colonel Aviem Sella was indicted today for his alleged role in the Pollard spy operation.
1988(14th of Adar, 5748): Purim
1988: Today the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith and the American Jewish Committee protested the designation of Dr. Inamullah Khan, secretary general of the Pakistan-based World Moslem Congress, as the winner of the $369,000 Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion because he has been associated with anti-Semitic and anti-Israel causes. The league said Dr. Khan and the congress were linked to anti-Semitic groups, including those that deny the Holocaust occurred, and that Dr. Khan had rejected Israel's right to exist. Dr. V. A. Hamdani, the congress's representative at the United Nations, where the Islamic group has observer status, called the league's complaint a ''rehash'' of old charges. He said his organization had not supported denials of the Holocaust. ''To my knowledge,'' he added, ''we have never denied Israel's right to exist.''
1991(17th of Adar, 5751): Arthur Murray passed away at the age of 95. Born Arthur Teichman, Murray became "America's dance instructor" through a string of dance studios and a hit television show featuring his wife and partner, Catherine.
1991: As the war with Iraq came to an end Air France is scheduled to resume service to Tel Aviv today.
1993(10th of Adar, 5753): Albert Sabin passed away at the age of 86. Born in 1903, Sabin developed an oral polio vaccine which supplanted the earlier Salk Vaccine. Sabin was 86 at the time of his death.
1995: Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb's She Who Dwells Within, which she describes as "a practical guide to nonsexist Judaism," was published. In 2004, Gottlieb left the pulpit to become director of a California organization dedicated to interfaith work.
1996 (12th of Adar, 5756): Dr. Meyer Schapiro, university professor emeritus at Columbia University, multi-disciplinary critic and historian, galvanic teacher, lifelong radical and for more than 50 years a pre-eminent figure in the intellectual life of New York, died at the Greenwich Village house that had been his home for more than 60 years. He was 91.
2002: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Summer in Baden-Baden by Leonid Tsypkin; translated by Roger Keys and Angela Keys and Soros: The Life and Times of a Messianic Billionaire by Michael T. Kaufman
2003: Natan Sharansky began serving as Jerusalem Affairs Minister.
2005(22nd of Adar I, 5765): Max M. Fisher, the Detroit oil and real estate magnate known for his philanthropy and for the advice he gave Republican presidents on the Middle East and Jewish issues, passed away at his home in Franklin, a Detroit suburb at the age of 96. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/04/national/04fisher.html
2006(3rd of Adar, 5766): William Herskovic who was a Holocaust survivor and humanitarian passed away at the age of 91. His escape from Auschwitz in 1942 and early eyewitness testimony inspired Belgium's opposition to Nazi Germany during World War II, and alerted the Resistance to the atrocities that were taking place in the concentration camps. Because of Herskovic's escape and testimony, hundreds of lives were saved. Herskovic is also the founder of Bel Air Camera, a veritable landmark in Los Angeles, which he established in 1957, and has received numerable awards for his philanthropy.
2007: Shabbat Zachor
2007: In the evening, Jews fulfill the mitzvah of hearing the Megillah as Purim begins.
2008: This evening, Israel pulled its troops out of the Gaza Strip marking the end of operation Hot Winter.
2008: Agudas Achim, the Shulman Hillel and Chabad Lubavitch of Iowa City sponsor “An Evening in Tribute to Michael Balch” (devoted member of the Iowa City Jewish Community and Professor Emirtus of Economics at Iowa University) featuring an address by Rabbi Dov Greenberg from Stanford University entitled “Death and Afterlife in Judaism.”
2009: David Polonsky discusses “Waltz With Bashir” at the Society of Illustrators. David Polonsky is the art director and chief illustrator for Waltz With Bashir, written, produced and directed by Ari Folman.
2009: The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research presents a lecture by Dr. David Berger, author of The Rebbe, the Messiah, and the Scandal of Orthodox Indifference, entitled “The Lubavitcher Rebbe as Messiah: Turning Point in Judaism?” in which he will examine whether the Lubavitch messianic movement represents a fundamental transformation of Judaism or is merely a passing development of little moment.
2009: The Believers, Zoë Heller’s latest novel appears in American bookstores.
2009: Hillary Clinton makes her first visit to Israel as Secretary of State meetin with a variety of Israeli leaders.
2009: A press release issued today confirmed that Julius Genachowski was President Obama’s c