April 23 In History
0034: According to Sir Isaac Newton, this is the date of the crucifixion of Jesus.
1185: Birthdate Alfonzo II, the third King of Portugal who was part of a dynasty that who provided a comparatively secure environment for their Jewish subjects. He was the grandson of King Alfonso I and the son of King Sancho I both of whom had recognized the Jewish community, allowing it settle its own legal problems. King Alfonzo set the tone for the dynasty when he appointed Yahia ben Yahi III, the first chief Rabbi of the Portuguese Jewish community to serve as his royal tax collector.
1229: As the Christians fought the Moors, Ferdinand III of Castile re-conquered Caceres. During this period the city had an important Jewish quarter: By the start of 15th century 140 Jewish families lived in city that had a population of 2000 people. As with everything in Sephard the story of the Jews of Caceres ends the same way with the expulsion by Queen Isabella and Ferdinand of Aragon in 1492.
1533: The Church of England annuls the marriage between Catherine of Aragon and Henry VIII. This was a major step in the break between Protestant England and Catholic Europe including France, Spain and those under the sway of the Pope. The English would be a valuable ally for the Protestants who were struggling to establish themselves in such places as the Netherlands and the Germanic states. For the Jews, this growing division among European Christians had the short term disadvantage of being caught between two warring parties and abused accordingly. In the long run, it was advantageous. Protestant England (even when the Catholic James II would come to throne) and Holland would provide early and safe havens for European Jews, especially those looking for homes and opportunity after their experience with the Spanish Inquisition.
1564: Birthdate of William Shakespeare. Was Shakespeare an anti-Semite? The question comes up every time there is a revival of “The Merchant of Venice.” The term Shylock, the term “pound of flesh” and the line “oh my ducats oh my daughter” have provided fodder for anti-Semites through the centuries. On the other hand, Shakespeare depicts Shylock as a human with feelings, which was certainly a cut above the normal portrayal during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. According to some critics, “Merchant of Venice” was written as The Bard’s theatrical response to Christopher Marlow’s, “The Jew of Malta.”
1571: In Venice Diana Rachel and Isaac of Modena gave birth to Leon (Judah Areyh) of Modena, famed Italian scholar, rabbi and Poet.
1615: Louis XIII decreed that all Jews must leave the country within one month on pain of death. This decree became the basis for the infamous Code Noir the Black Code which forbade Jews to live in French colonies in the New World including in 1724 the colony of Louisiana. This may explain why there are no Jewish Creoles in New Orleans society.
1615: Christians in France were forbidden, under pain of death, to shelter or converse with Jews, by order of Louis XIII.
1620(20thof Nisan, 5380): Hayyim ben Joseph Vital passed away at Damascus. Born at Calabria in 1543, he was a foremost exponent of Lurianic Kabbalah, recording much of his master's teachings.
1661: King Charles II of England, Scotland and Ireland is crowned in Westminster Abbey. The coronation of Charles II marked the Restoration following the death of Oliver Cromwell. Cromwell had allowed the Jews to quietly re-enter England and develop a community. “Technically, the 1558 Act of Uniformity, which labeled any rites other than those of the Church of England unlawful remained in force.” But while still in the Netherlands, trying to secure his throne, Charles had assured Amsterdam that English Jews had nothing to fear from his kingship. A generous contribution from Jewish bankers and merchants certainly helped the situation. Once in power, the king proved true to his word. When Christian merchants tried to oust their Jewish competition on grounds that they were not members of the Church, Charles stood by his Jewish subjects as long as they obeyed the laws and remained peaceful subjects. In 1673, an anti-Semitic mob demanded that the Jewish leaders be punished for worshipping in public. When a grand jury caved in an indicted some of the leading Jews, the Israelites threatened to leave the kingdom rather than give up their religious liberties. Charles issued orders to halt the proceedings and “not to cause any more anxieties to Jews.”
1720: Birthdate of Elijah (Eliyahu) ben Shlomo Zalman "Kremer" better known as the Vilna Gaon. [Ed. Note: There is not enough room to do justice to this Giant of Judaism. The following website is a good point of departure.]
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/vilnagaon.html
1744: In Havana, Isaac Mendez, and two other Jews boarded the Fortune, a French merchant sloop bound for Curacao. Mendez, a resident of Kingston, Jamaica, was a Jewish merchant and loyal subject of King George II. In 1743, during a trading voyage, Mendez’s ship was captured by the Spanish and he was imprisoned in Havana. In accord with ancient Jewish tradition, friends learned of his plight. They “arranged for his release” and paid for his passage aboard the French vessel. [Yes, there is more to the story. But you will have to wait for TDIJH for April 24 for the next installment]
1791: Birthdate of James Buchanan, 15th President of the United States. In 1857, President Buchanan received a committee of Jews led by Isaac MeyerWise. They were there to seek his support in over-turning a treaty with the Swiss Cantons that resulted in American Jews being subjected to the anti-Semitic laws of Switzerland. Buchanan said he would work to correct the situation. But Buchanan was no more effective in helping American Jews than he would be in preserving the Union when Secession came.
1797: In Charleston, SC, Sarah and Abraham Moise gave birth to Penina Moise. “Moïse was the first Jewish American woman to contribute to the worship service, writing 190 hymns for Beth Elohim. The Reform movement’s 1932 Union Hymnal still contained thirteen of her hymns.” (As reported by Jay Eidelman)
http://www.scmuseum.org/women/Moise.html
http://www.discoveringpeninamoise.com/
1818: Birthdate of Christopher Oscanyan, the Armenian-born American author and speaker whose lecture topics included “The Women of Turkey and the Jews of the East.”
1849: Noah Lodge No 1 of the Independent Order of Free Sons of Israel which had been formed in January of this year, held its eighth meeting today at which Mr. Stern and Mr. Buttenheim to advance the organization the 25 dollars needed to buy “emblems for the grand officers.”
1852: “Le Juif errant” premiered at today at the Salle Le Peletier of the Paris Opera. “ Le Juif errant (The Wandering Jew) is a grand opera by Fromental Halévy, with a libretto by Eugène Scribe and Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges.” The opera is based extremely loosely on themes of the novel “Le Juif errant” by Eugène Sue. While the novel is set in 19th century Paris and the Wandering Jew is incidental to the main story-line, the opera begins in Amsterdam in 1190 and the Jew, Ahasvérus, is a leading character. The music was sufficiently popular to generate a Wandering Jew Mazurka, a Wandering Jew Waltz, and a Wandering Jew Polka.”
1858: Birthdate of Max Plank, German physicist and Nobel Prize Winner. During World War II, Plank tried to convince Hitler to spare the lives of Jewish scientists. His son was executed for his part in the 1944 plot to kill Hitler. Plank passed away in 1947.
1860: According to an article entitled “The Extortions of Slavery” published today, Dr. George B. Cheever delivered an anti-slavery speech last night at The Church of the Puritans in which he compared slaveholders to the anti-Semitic King John of England who “who, to extort money from a Jew, pulled a tooth every day from out the Hebrew's head until he complied with his demands.”
1861: Major Alfred Mordecai wrote an angry letter to Colonel Craig complaining that he had not had any response to his request for a transfer. Unbeknownst to Mordecai, Craig had been replaced as his superior. Mordecai was a distinguished officer in the United States Army who was born in the South. He was trying to gain a transfer to a post in the West so he could stay in the army without having to fight family and friends from the South.
1868: According to today’s “Foreign News by Mail” column, when Ion Bratiano, Minister of State, was asked a question about the present of the National Guard at Jassy (Romania), he that “as long as the violent hatred against the Jews lasted he would not furnish the enemies of the Jews with arms.” Bratino was a Rumanian nationalist who worked to secure the establishment of an independent Romania. He was the leader of the liberal cabinet that would declare Romania’s independence in 1877. The conditions of Romania’s Jews did not improve with independence.
1870: The remains of Dr. George Frick who had passed away while visiting Berlin were interred in the Greenmount Cemetery in Baltimore, MD. Dr. Frick was the younger brother of the late Judge Frick.
1870(22ndof Nisan, 5630): 8th day of Pesach
1871: Derech Emunoh concescrated its new synagogue today in what has been the chapel of New York University. The congregation which has been using a building on Greene Street leased its new facility. The service was led by Rabbi S.M. Isaacs.
1872(15th of Nisan, 5632): On the first day of Pesach, Rabbi Henry Vidaver delivered a sermon “on the celebration of Passover” at B’Nai Jeshrum in New York City. Rabbi Vidaver was one of the contributors to the “Abridged School and Family Bibile in Hebrew & English.”
1879(30th of Nisan, 5639): Rosh Chodesh Iyar
1880: In an article about Benjamin Disraeli, that begins with “Lord Beaconsfield steps down and at his advanced age it is not probable that he will ever again hold the reins of power” the New York Times traces the career of the British statesman that began fifty-four years ago with the publication of “Vivian Gray” and includes such highlights as the maneuvering which brought the Suez Canal under British control.” The article included the following, “Of Semitic origin, his ideas, methods, and sentiments bore an Oriental stamp.” His father may have taken Disraeli to the baptismal font, but he was still “a Jew” to many of his contemporaries.
1881: A large number of Jews have arrived in Cincinnati for the upcoming dedication of a new building at the Hebrew Union College.
1882: A conference designed to provide aid to the Jews of Russia was held today in Berlin. There were representatives from several different countries including the United States and Great Britain which was represented by Sr. Juilan Goldsmid and Dr. Herrman Adler. In making plans for the future, the conference assigned the Americans the responsibility for finding employment for Russian immigrants going to the United States. The Germans and British were given responsibility for raising additional funds.
1882: It was reported today, that as a result of a document issued by the Minister of Justice, the Czar has ordered that the trials of all those accused “of outrages against the Jews” be dealt with in a speedy manner.
1883: It was reported today the biography of Dr. Barclay, the late Anglican Bishop in Jerusalem will be published shortly. The book will include significant information about the failure to convert Jews and Moslems.
1889(22nd of Nisan, 5649): 8th day of Pesach
1889: Millionaire stock broker, Isidor Wormser, whose daughter is a Seligman by marriage, was so upset with the comments that Rensselaer Bissell had made about him that he challenged him to a fistfight outside of the NYSE after the exchange had closed. In the end, Bissell backed down, much to the disappointment of his fellow brokers.
1890: “A Mighty Power” by Frank Rothschild, Jr. had a pre-Broadway matinee performance at the Fifth Avenue Theatre.
1891(15thof Nisan, 5651): Pesach
1891: An order expelling the Jews from Moscow was published today,
1893: Rabbi Raphael Benjamin was reported today as describing the blackballing of Theodore Seligman by the Union League as “unmanly, un-American and un-Christian.” At the same time he took issued with those who “that this is only the beginning of a movement against Jews” in New York City and saw “it only as a small remnant of the ignorant prejudiced with once existed toward” Jews “and which, under the enlightening influence of education is fast disappearing.”
1894: Hyman Blumenthal, a Jewish peddler is being held in jail facing charges of arson for his role in burning a tenement in New York City.
1894(17th of Nisan, 5654): American banker and philanthropist Jesse Seligman passed away today at Coronado Beach CA. Born at Baiersdorf, Bavaria, on August 11, 1827, he followed his brothers to the United States in 1841, and established himself at Clinton, Alabama. In 1848 he moved with his brothers to Watertown, N. Y., and then, with his brother Leopold, went to San Francisco in the autumn of 1850, where he became a member of the Vigilance Committee, as well as of the Howard Fire Company. He remained in California until 1857, when he joined his brother in establishing a banking business in New York. With his brother Joseph he helped to found the Hebrew Orphan Asylum in 1859, and was connected with it till his death. At the time of his death he was a trustee of the Baron de Hirsch Fund. He was a member of the Union League Club, of which he was vice-president, and from which he resigned in 1893 when the club for racial reasons refused to admit to membership his son Theodore. He was head of the American Syndicate formed to place in the United States the shares of the Panama Canal. He was also a friend and supporter of President Grant whom he first met when the young army officer was stationed near Watertown. In fact, Grant tried to make him the first American Jew to serve in the Cabinet. (As reported in the Jewish Encyclopedia and Dr. Jonathan Sarna)
1896, Herzl wrote in his diaries of his arrival in Karlsruhe at Reverend William Hechler’s request.
“Arrived here at eleven last night. Hechler met me at the station and took me to the Hotel Germania, which had been “recommended by the Grand Duke.” We sat in the dining-room for an hour. I drank Bavarian beer, Hechler milk. He told me what had happened. The Grand Duke had received him immediately upon his arrival, but first wanted to wait for his privy-councilor’s report on my Jewish State. Hechler showed the Grand Duke the “prophetic tables” which seemed to make an impression. When the Kaiser arrived, the Grand Duke immediately informed him of the matter. Hechler was invited to the reception and to the surprise of the court-assembly the Kaiser addressed him with the jocular words: “Hechler, I hear you wanted to become a minister of the Jewish State.”
1896: A memorial honoring the late Jesse Seligman was unveiled this afternoon at the Hebrew Orphan Asylum on 138thStreet and Amsterdam Avenue
1896: The New York Section of the National Council of Jewish Women met in vestry rooms of Temple Beth-El.
1898: The Alumni Association of the Hebrew Technical Institute hosted its fifth annual reunion banquet at the Tuxedo
1898: Start of a two day Preliminary conference in Vienna prior to the second Zionist Congress. Representatives from Russia, Austria and Germany all attended. It is decided to send Leo Motzkin to Palestine to prepare a report. The congress will meet again in Basel, Switzerland. As was befitting for liberal movement that would come to be dominated by socialist idealist, the Zionist leaders decided that women would be allowed to attend the Congress as voting delegates. In other words, Zionist women had the vote two decades before women in the United States got the vote.
1899: Herzl begins the two day Bank Conference in Köln with Wolffsohn and Heymann as he sought to develop his “top down” concept of creating a Jewish home in Eretz Israel.
1899: The American Hebrew League of Greater New York met in Brooklyn this evening.
1899: Dr. Felix Adler is scheduled to deliver a lecture on “The Metropolitan Greatness of New York and the Vast Moral Problems It Raises” at the Music Hall in New York City.
1901: The New York branch of the Alliance Israelite Universelle was reorganized under direction of M. Nissim Behar. The meeting was held in English, Yiddish and German. Mr. Louis Marshall was elected President, and Henry Periera Mendes as secretary.
1903: Herzl is received by Joseph Chamberlain, who just came back from Africa.
The Chamberlain-Herzl negotiations of the "Uganda scheme" are the first recognition of the president of the Zionist Organization as representing the Jewish people.
1903: During the “Melvin Bellis Case” a report from the Kiev District Procurator, based on an autopsy by a medical professor from Kiev University, intimated that Andrei Yustchinski had been the victim of a ritual murder. “Years later, it would be learned that the ministry of justice had slipped the doctor a four thousand ruble bribe.”
1904: Birthdate of The Honorable Ivor Goldsmid Samuel Montagu “a British filmmaker, screenwriter, producer, film critic, writer, table tennis player and apparent Soviet spy. He “received some credit for the development of a vibrant intellectual film culture in Britain during the interwar years.” He passed away in 1984.
1910(14th of Nisan, 5670): On Shabbat HaGadol, Rabbi Joseph Silverman delivered a sermon at Temple Emanu-El in which his he praised Mayor Gaynor for this letter to Reverend Chalmers refusing him a license to preach on the street corners of the East Side with the aim of converting Jews to Christianity.
1910(14th of Nisan, 5670): An article published today entitled “Passover Begins To-Night” states that “"Pesach," the Hebrew festival of the Passover, one of the most important festivals of the Jewish calendar, will begin at sunset this evening, which is the fourteenth day of the month of Nison. This festival was ordained to celebrate the deliverance of the children of Israel from their long captivity in Egypt and their departure from the house of bondage on the way through the wilderness to the promised land of Canaan.”
1910 (14th of Nisan, 5670): A Seder will be held tonight on Ellis Island for the Jewish immigrants who have not been given permission to enter the United States.
1918: In New York, Regina and Nisim Yeuda Levy gave birth to Louis N. Levy.
1920: Political change comes to the Ottoman Empire as the national council denounces Sultan Mehmed VI and The Grand National Assembly of Turkey is formed. These events are steps down the road to the dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire and the creation of modern day Turkey. The end of the Ottoman Empire was a critical factor in the creation of a Jewish Homeland that led to the state of Israel. But this dismemberment has been a critical factor that haunts the Middle East to this day.
1920(5th of Iyar, 5680): Isaac Gause passed away. Born in 1843 in Ohio, he was a corporal in the 2nd Ohio Cavalry (USA) Army who won the Medal of Honor for valor displayed at Berryville, VA, in September of 1864.
1921(15thof Nisan, 5681): For the first time during the Presidency of Warren G. Harding Jews observe Pesach
1923: Birthdate of Shlomo Hillel an Iraqi-born Israeli diplomat and politician who served as Speaker of the Knesset, Minister of Police and Minister of Internal Affairs. He was also an ambassador to several countries in Africa.
1923: Birthdate of dancer Melissa Hayden
1923: Birthdate of Avram Davidson. A native of Yonkers, NY, educated at NYU, Yeshiva U and Pierce College, he spent a year in the Israeli Amy during the Arab-Israeli War of 1948-49. His first sale was to Orthodox Jewish Life Magazine eight years before he broke into the genre. Originally an observant Orthodox Jew. Converted to Tenrikyo in 1970, after which he spent time in Japan, studied the religion intensely, and translated some texts into English. He was a writer of fantasy fiction, science fiction, and crime fiction, as well as the author of many unclassifiable but unforgettable stories that do not fit into a genre niche. He won a Hugo Award and was three time winner of the World Fantasy Award in the science fiction and fantasy genre, and a Queen's Award and an Edgar Award in the mystery genre. Davidson edited The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction from 1962 to 1964. He passed away in 1993.
1930: Birthdate of actor Alan Oppenheimer in New York City. Oppenheimer had a long list of movie and television credits to his name. While you may not recognize the name, you would recognize the famous. One of his most roles was that of Dr. Rudy Wells in the Six Million Dollar Man
1934: Abraham Stavsky, Zvi Rosenblatt and Abba Achimeyer went on trial for the murder of Dr. Chaim Arlosoroff today in Jerusalem.
1936(1st of Iyar, 5696): Rosh Chodesh Iyar
1936: Isaac Ben Zvi, representing Vaad Leumi (the Palestine Jewish National council) and Rabbi Moses Blau of Agudath Israel call on Jon Hall, Chief Secretary of the Palestine Government and asked him to prevent Arabs living in surrounding villages from coming to Jerusalem tomorrow. The villagers are coming in response to a call from the Mufit of Jerusalem. The fears of the Jewish leaders are based on the current climate of violence in Palestine and the fact that the current conditions remind one of conditions that resulted in the violent Arab riots in August of 1929. As if to underscore their concerns, reports have surfaced in Jerusalem that the “private offices of the May of Tel Aviv…were plundered in Jaffa this afternoon.”
1938 Jews in Vienna, Austria, were rounded up on the Sabbath by Nazis and forced to eat grass at the Prater, a local amusement park. Many of the victimized Jews suffered heart attacks and a few died.
1939: The police arrested 218 more illegal immigrants near Jaffa early this morning. The group that included fifty women and ten children had been put ashore by a Greek ship near Ashkelon. The British forces found them wandering in the dunes. They were taken to holding camps in Jaffa. Along the way, the convoy passed several Jewish settlements where the residents cheered these latest escapees from Hitler’s Europe.
1940: The Nazis ordered the Jews to jump in cesspool at the Stutthof Labor Camp. The short ones drown.
1943(18thof Nisan, 5703): Seventy-seven year old Alexander Gotthold Ephraim Freud passed
1943: Much to everybody's surprise, the Warsaw Uprising continues even though supplies and weapons are at the bare minimum. By now the Poles know what is going on. They watch, but they offer no aid. The Polish underground will suffer a similar fate in 1945. Then they will rise up against the Nazis, but the Soviet troops wait outside the city giving the Germans to wipe the predominately non-Communist part of the resistance movement. As somebody once said, as you treat your Jews, so shall you be treated
1946: Forces of the Irgun including Dov Bel Gruner attacked the police station in Ramat Gan. Two policemen were killed and Gruner, who was wounded in the attack, was taken prisoner.
1948(14th of Nisan, 5708): Erev Pesach the rations given out in Jerusalem for the observance of Passover included 2 lbs. of potatoes, ½ lb of fish, 4 lb. of matzo, 1 ½ oz. dried fruit, ½ lb. meat, and ½ lb. of matzo flour. As one who was there later wrote, “For the trapped citizens of Jerusalem, who had become accustomed to privation, the Passover provisions seemed like a banquet. However, for the citizens of Jerusalem, it was not a particularly merry affair. On the verge of their national freedom, the inhabitants of Jerusalem sat somberly around their tables. This was the first time since the nightly shellings that the city's citizens had come together in assembly in the various homes throughout the city that had been the dream of two thousand years' Seders. Tonight is a holiday, but tomorrow the struggle will go on. As they sat to begin the Seder, they heard the beginning of the snipers bullets looking for a straggler in the streets. But tonight was different. As they opened the door, as they had done for scores of generations, to welcome in Elijah, there was no fear. Tonight is a night of divine protection. As the Holy One protected the Jews in Egypt, so shall he protect us here in the war torn city of Jerusalem. "Once we were slaves, but today we are free men" recited in the Haggadah, took on new meaning. The British are leaving, the Arabs are attacking, and we are beginning our new national lives as free men in our own country. "Next year in Jerusalem" had a meaning that we never before understood. We meant it; we would not relinquish our dream to return to our homeland, to the city that has been in our hearts throughout the two thousand year exile. Now we are free men, tomorrow we must continue the fight to remain free.
1948: Corporal David Hyman Rubenstein the 19th Milford, Massachusetts man to lose his life in World War II was buried at Beth Israel Cemetery in Everett, with full military honors. “Milford’s Fallen Family” of that war would come to total 55. Rubenstein was killed in action, in France, on July 4, 1944. Weeks after his death, his last letter arrived home. Written on June 28 from a fox hole, it described the “carnage about him ... as a slaughterhouse.”
1948: The port of Haifa was captured by elements of the Israeli Carmeli Brigade. On April 21, the general commanding British forces in Haifa announced that he was withdrawing his forces in 24 hours. This announcement resulted in an outbreak of fighting between Jewish and Arab forces. Unfortunately for the Arabs, their three to leaders fled at the outbreak of the fighting, demoralizing the population. The British general lost his bet that neither side would win as the outnumbered members of the Haganah took control. Despite efforts of the Jewish leaders to convince them to remain, most of the city’s Arab population left for Lebanon or Nazareth. . Today, Haifa is a thriving and diverse cultural and ethnic center, home to Jews, Arabs, and Druze, and marked for its high level of coexistence. It is this level of harmony that has made Haifa a target for terrorist bombings in the latest wave of Arab violence.
1950: St. Louis Browns pitcher Sid Schacht made his major league baseball debut.
1950: Correspondent Gene Currivan evaluates Israel’s chances for survival and offers an explanations for her success against her more powerful Arab neighbors in an article published today entitled “Mid-East Peace Nearer Despite Arab Gestures.” He points out that the Arab League’s failure to provide a common front was but one of the many problems facing the Arabs. “At the outset of the Israel-Arab war, when the Arabs spoke of 40,000,00 Arabs banding together against Israel, the were thinking in terms of Moslems, but the Moslems of Saudi Arabia, Iran and Afghanistan could not have cared less…When those who did enter the war sat back and licked their wounds, they probably wonder what all the shouting had been about. The war was started by the Arabs in defiance of the United Nations’ partition plan which they had refused to accept…The Arabs made a grave mistake…but they are reluctant to forgive and forget
1950: Israel continued to celebrate its second year of independence as Dr. Weizmann receives congratulatory visits by foreign dignitaries lead by U.S. Ambassador James G MacDonald.
1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that the "past seven days was the bloodiest week along Israeli borders for a long time." Two Israelis were murdered at Mevuot Betar, the marauders were active in the South, in Galilee and Jerusalem. There was a general outcry when General Bennet L. de Ridder, the U.N. Chairman of the Israel-Jordan Mixed Armistice Commission refused to comply with the Israeli request to call an emergency meeting of the Commission to discuss the latest developments and, in particular, the murder of Zvi Genauer and his niece, Dvora, in Jerusalem. This incomprehensible U.N. decision was taken despite the fact that the tracks of the three marauders, responsible for this murder, were discovered by an U.N. observer and an Israeli officer who noted that they led to the Jordanian-occupied village of Beit Iksa. The General claimed that it was not the duty of his Commission to deal with incidents "of this type."
1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that Israel's three-years-long land survey, conducted by the Ministry of Agriculture, was almost completed.
1954: Cincinnati pitcher Moe Savransky made his major league baseball debut.
1956: For the third time, Sigmund Freud is featured on the cover of Timemagazine.
1957(22nd of Nisan, 5717): 8th day of Pesach
1957(22nd of Nisan, 5717): Lucille Frank, the widow of Leo Frank, passed away, a victim of heart disease.
1958(3rd of Iyar, 5718): Yom HaZikaron
1958: San Francisco Giants outfielder Don Taussig appeared in his first major league baseball game.
1959(15th of Nisan, 5719): Pesach
1960: Birthdate of Marisa Silver, an American author, screenwriter and film director. She is a second generation film director. Her father is Raphael Silver and her mother is Joan Micklin Silver both of whom are directors
1963(29th of Nisan, 5723): Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, third President of Israel passed away.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/ben-zvi.html
1963: Kadish Luz was named interim President of Israel.
1969: Sirhan Sirhan was sentenced to death for killing Bobby Kennedy. Sirhan Sirhan's sentence was commuted to life in prison. He still is serving his sentence. The young Palestinian claimed that he shot Kenney because he was a supporter of Israel. Yes, the terror and the violence are an old story.
1975: At Tulane University, U.S. President Gerald Ford stated that the war is over as far as the United States was concerned. According to at least one Jewish Tulane alum, this was an appropriate place to make such an announcement since the primarily poitically apathetic campus had missed the start of the war.
1972: At an “academic convocation held under the auspices of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America” a thousand people saw “His Excellency the Right Honourable Roland Michener, governor general of Canada, accepted the honorary degree of doctor of laws from Rabbi Louis Finkelstein, chancellor of the seminary. In his acceptance speech, Michener “made special reference to the 125thanniversary of Congregation Shaar Hashomayim.”
1986(14th of Nisan, 5746): Fast of the First Born
1986(14th of Nisan, 5746): Composer Harold Arlen passed away. Born Hyman Arluck in 1905, in Buffalo, New York, Arlen's father was a cantor. Arlen inherited his father's voice and the family hoped he would become a cantor, or at least a doctor or a lawyer. However, Arlen showed a propensity for the piano. He moved to New York City in the 1920's where he flourished as composer of a variety of hits. Some of his most famous music is heard every time the Wizard of Oz is shown on television. Arlene was murdered in 1981 at the age of 81
http://www.haroldarlen.com/home.html
1986(14th of Nisan, 5746): Director and actor, Otto Preminger passed away. Born on December 5, 1905, in Vienna, Preminger began as a director and producer in the theatre. He came to the United States in 1935 as a film director. Later he left to work in the theatre in New York. He returned to Hollywood as actor where he played the Nazi or German officer in several films, most notably Stalag 17, the product of another Jew, Billy Wilder. Preminger and others were struck by the success a Jew from Austria had playing Nazi soldiers. Preminger returned to directing movies, one of which, Anatomy of A Murder is considered to be one of the finest legal/mystery movies ever made. He passed away after suffering from Alzheimer's Disease for many years.
http://www.ottopreminger.com/
1986: An Israeli Defense Ministry official said today that Avraham Bar-Am, a retired Israeli general who is among those accused in a smuggling case involving attempts by Iran to buy American-made weapons through illegal channels, was licensed to deal in weapons, but not in a manner that violated the law.
1990(28th of Nisan, 5750): Actress Paulette Goddard passed away
http://boards.ancestry.com/topics.obits2/49421/mb.ashx
1993: The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum opened on the Mall in Washington, DC under the chairmanship of Miles Lerman. Born Shmuel Milek Lerman in 1920 in Tomaszov-Lubelski, Poland was a Holocaust survivor. He was appointed to the chairmanship by Jimmy Carter and given responsibility for creating this American memorial to the Shoah. (As reported by Dennis Hevesi)
1994: In a letter to the New York Timeshistorian Ronald N. Stromberg wrote, “"The Italian government did not turn a single Jew over to the Germans despite great pressure
1995(23rd of Nisan, 5755): Howard Cosell passed away. Born Howard Cohen in Winston Salem, North Carolina in 1918, Cosell was educated in New York. Ah yes, grits and gefilte fish. Trained as a lawyer, Cosell gained fame as a sports broadcaster. He helped revolutionize television football coverage and changed American social mores with his participation in Monday Night Football on ABC. Cosell was a controversial figure with as many supporters as detractors. But when he