April 9 In History
193: Septimius Severus is proclaimed Roman Emperor by the army in Illyricum. Severus is the first emperor to ban proselytizing by Jews.
423: Emperor Theodosius II reaffirms the Roman law according to which "No Jew may purchase Christian slaves because it is abominable that religious slaves would be defiled by the ownership of impious Jews. If anyone does this, they will be subject to the statutory punishment without any delay."
423: Theodosius II and Honorious reaffirm the Roman law which ban the seizure or burning of Synagogues but which also allows the Jews to “be punished by confiscation and exile for life if it is discovered that they have circumcised a” Christian.
1362: The Crown of Aragon (the name of the realm ruled by the King of Aragon) examined a court case involving the murder of a Jew by two Muslims. The widow of the man took the matter to the court after unsuccessfully seeking justice in the town where the murder occurred.
1811: “The New York State Legislature granted financial adi to the parochial school of Congregation Shearith Israel.” (As reported by Abraham P. Bloch)
1838(14th of Nisan, 5598):Ta'anit Bechorot / Erev Pesach
1838(14th of Nisan, 5598): Leopold Bettelheim passed away. Born in 1777, this Hungarian physician was also “a Hebraist of some importance.” “In 1830 Bettelheim was the recipient of a gold medal of honor from the emperor Franz I. for distinguished services to the royal family and to the nobility.”
1855: In London Cecilia and David Woolf Marks gave birth to Harry Hananel Marks, who founded the Financial News in 1884.
1865: Robert E. Lee and U.S. Grant met at Appomattox Court House and concluded the agreement the marked the end of Civil War. While Jews fought on both sides of the conflict, the majority of Jews supported the Union and fought for the North. At the same time, a description of the Siege of Petersburg includes a notation that the Confederate lines were so thin that the Jewish soldiers could not be allowed to be absent to observe their Day of Atonement as they had been in past years. Simon Wolf, a Jewish activist of the 19th Century, collected the names of over 7000 Jewish-Americans who fought on both sides during the Civil War. In 1895, he published the list in a directory entitled The American Jew as Patriot, Soldier, and Citizen.
1865: Andrew Jackson “Jack” Moses was among the Confederate soldiers who fought against the Union Army at Sumter, SC.
1865: Lt. Joshua Lazarus Moses was killed today as Confederate forces fought at Mobile, Alabama. Moses had been with the army since the start of the war having fought at the First Battle of Bull Run.
1865: Birthdate of Charles Proteus Steinmetz Born in Breslau German, Steinmetz came to the United States in 1889. Viewed by some as brilliant theorist and mathematical genius, Steinmetz held more than 200 patents when he passed away in 1923. He experimented with AC electricity. His work was primarily in the field of improving practical electrical devices and the transmission of energy. The following comments provide some sense of his importance as a Jew and as an America. "Where does our future lie! It lies in developing and making use of men like the great Jews, Abram Jacobi, Charles Proteus Steinmetz and Louis Brandeis, who are true to their own nature, and who respond to the American environment. These men are not amateur Gentiles. They are Jews and they are Americans."
1867: The United States Senate ratified a treaty with Russia that enabled the United States to purchase Alaska. “Jews have been a prominent part of Alaska's history even before its acquisition by the U.S. in 1867. San Francisco Jewish pioneering merchants Louis Sloss and Lewis Gerstle (for whom Northeast Alaska's Gerstle River is named) are credited with opening the Alaska Territory to settlers and commercial enterprises when establishing the Alaska Commercial Company in 1868. Originally a fur-transporting firm, ACC expanded to become a salmon cannery and fishing fleet, operated a chain of trading posts providing general merchandise to natives, trappers, miners, and explorers, and supplied Alaska's first fleet of ships during the Klondike Gold Rush of 1897-1901”.
1871:The annual meeting of the "Hebrew Benevolent Fuel Association" was held at Masonic Hall this morning. This organization now has over 1,000 members, and is now entirely supported by an annual subscription of $3 per capita. The association will no long have to resort to fairs, concerts, and other soliciting entertainments” for funding. “Last year” the Association “distributed 1,000 half tons of coal” valued at $3,375 to needy New York Jews.
1872: In New York, Nathan Goldberg’s home on Division Street suffered $300 dollars’ worth of damage in a fire tonight.
1872: Birthdate of Léon Blum the first Jew to serve as French Premier. Imprisoned by the French and the Germans during World War II, he returned to politics briefly after the war before passing away in 1950.
1872(1st of Nisan, 5632): Rosh Chodesh Nisan
1876(15th of Nisan, 5636): First Day of Pesach
1876: According to a report published in the Salt Lake Tribune, the forty Jewish families of Utah’s largest city celebrated Pesach
1877(26th of Nisan, 5637): Henry Grass, a New York clothier passed away today. He is survived by his wife Rebecca, six children, his brothers Abraham and Jacob and their daughters.
1884(14th of Nisan, 5644): Fast of the First Born
1884(14th of Nisan, 5644): An article entitled “The Festival Of Pesach” published in the New York Times today states that “the Jewish festival of Pesach, or the Passover will begin at sunset this evening and continue for seven days…It is also known as the Feast of Matzoth on account of the eating of the matzoth or cakes of unleavened bread during its continuance.”
1887(15th of Nisan, 5647): On the first day of Pesach, Dr. Gustav Gottheil preached a sermon at New York’s Temple Emanu-el.
1888: Birthdate of Sol Hurok. Born Solomon Gurkov in a small Ukrainians village, Hurok learned the meaning of anti-Semitism at an early age. When he was 18, Hurok's father gave him one thousand rubles to go to Kiev. Hurok took the money but went to Philadelphia instead. Once in the States, Hurok began a career as an impresario promoting everything from violinists, to opera, to Anna Pavlova, to an Israel-Yemenite Singing and Dancing Troup that preserved the Jewish-Yemenite Heritage. He passed away in 1974. Ironically, one of the first performers whom Hurok promoted was the violinist Efrem Zimablist who was also born on April 9 in another part of the Russian Empire.
1889: Birthdate of Efrem Zimbalist in Rostov-on-Don Russia. Zimbalist studied with his father who was conductor of note before coming to the United States in 1914. He made his major musical debut in 1922. He was one of a long list Jewish violinist to populate the musical cosmos in the last two centuries. He passed away in 1985.
1890: The will of the late Louis Lippman was filed for probate today.
1890: An inquest was convened to determine the culpability of Abraham Marks in the death of Henry Heppner. Marks claimed he shot Heppner when he was trying to break into his tailor’s shop through a rear window.
1892: “Three City Hospitals” published today described the efforts of New York City to provide treatment for those suffering from contagious diseases including the construction of a new pavilion at Riverside Hospital on North Brother Island for the benefit of Jewish immigrants from Russia who are suffering from typhus.
1893: On the day after Passover, Rabbi. Gustav G. Gottheil delivered a lecture entitled "The Christian Mission to the Jews; or, Who Needs Conversion!" at Temple Emanu-El in New York City.
1893: It was reported today that the anti-Semites in Vienna claim that the man who attacked Karl Lueger with a knife was an agent of the Israelite Alliance.
1895: “Russian Anti-Jew Edict Enforced” published today described the lasts step in the Czar’s anti-Semitic policy in which the government has “instructed local military officials…to enforce most strictly the ant-Jew edict of 1893” that “excluded Jews from the health resorts in the Caucasus.”
1895(15th of Nisan, 5655): Pesach
1895: Dr. Solomon H. Sonnenschein who is the rabbi at Congregation Temple Israel in St. Louis will deliver a Passover Sermon entitled “The Root and Fruit of Freedom” in German at the Fifteen Street Temple in New York City. (Sermons in German were still the norm in many Reform congregations and the switch to English caused a schism in many congregations. So much for equating Reform with being accepting of change)
1902: Herzl wrote to Lord Rothschild in London asking for a meeting in the British capital.
1903: Birthdate of Dr. Gregory Pincus. Born in New Jersey, Dr. Pincus' parents where Jewish immigrants from Russia. Dr. Pincus' father was an agronomist who hoped to train Russian Jews to become farmers in the United States. A graduate of Cornell with a Ph.D. from Harvard, Dr. Pincus is known as the "Father of the Pill." Dr. Pincus and Dr. Chiang developed the first birth control pill; a discovery that altered American and the world's sexual behavior forever. Pincus continued his work until his untimely death in 1967.
1905: Birthdate of J. William Fulbright, former Senator from Arkansas. Fulbright gained fame as Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Fulbright denied being pro-Arab or anti-Israel. However, after he left the Senate he became a highly paid lobbyist for the Arab oil states.
1906: “When Gold Boils” published reported today that Professor “Henri Moissan has been trying some interesting experiments in vaporizing gold in the electric furnace.” A French born Jew, Moissan won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1906.
1906(14th of Nisan, 5666): Mrs. Sarah Orenstein and two of her children were almost asphyxiated this evening. While cleaning her house in preparation for Pesach, Mrs. Orsenstein apparently failed to replace a piece tubing that she had taken from the stove causing a gas leak. Fortunately her husband figured out what had happened and called an ambulance before the family was overcome by the fumes.
1906(14th of Nisan, 5666): Today in a Harlem Police Court the needs of two religions clashed and the Jews lost twice. The magistrate fined eight Orthodox Jews who had worked on done construction work on new building yesterday. They were fined because they worked on the Christian Sabbath even though they explained to the Judge that they had only been working on Sunday so they could finish the job before the Passover. The same magistrate fined Michael Garlick for killing chickens yesterday, Sunday, which was the Christian Sabbath. In his defense Garlick said that his boss had told him that the Deputy Police Commissioner said it would be alright to slaughter the chickens on a Sunday because of the approaching Passover holiday. The magistrate did not dispute the fact that the Commissioner had made the statement. He said Garlick was guilty because the Commissioner did nave “the right to interpret the law.”
1908:Hundreds of poor Jews received free tickets at the offices of the United Hebrew Communities Charity which can be exchanged for Matzoth, meat and other groceries. Most of the recipients are women, many of whom who have brought their young children with them. The distribution is an annual event intended to make it possible for even the poorest Jew to be able to celebrate Passover. Tickets will be distributed as long as there funds are available to fund the purchase of the necessary food items.
1910: Birthdate of Yosef Shalom “a Haredi rabbi and posek who lives in Jerusalem, Israel.”
1910: Birthdate of Abraham A. Ribbicoff. Born in New Britain, Connecticut, to Jewish immigrant parents from Poland, Ribbicoff attended New York University and was awarded a law degree cum laude from the University of Chicago in 1933. Starting in 1938, Ribbicoff worked his way up the Connecticut political ladder. During the late 1950's was a popular two term governor who became an early supporter of John F. Kennedy. Ribbicoff served two years as Secretary of H.E.W. before resigning to begin a two decade long career in the U.S. Senate. Ribbicoff was a champion of civil rights, Medicare and the American workers. He passed away in 1998. Today we take the involvement of Jews at all levels of the political process for granted. Such was not the case when Ribbicoff began his career. An observant Jew, Ribbicoff was a trail-blazer for the dozens of Jewish Representatives and Senators who are in Washington today.
1911:Reverand Madison C. Peters, the Pastor Bloomingdale Church, gave a lecture today at Temple Beth El on Haym Salomon, “the financier of the American Revolution.” During his talk, Rev Peters stated that “Haym Solomon…did for the Nation’s credit what Washington did on the field for freedom.”
1912: Birthdate of Lew Kopelew, Russian author and political dissident. Like many of his generation, Kopelew career was a checkered one with his acceptance or rejection depending upon the prevailing political winds. Unlike many of his contemporaries, Kopelew survived the Soviet Union, dying peacefully in 1997.
1916: Birthdate of Elliot Handler, who co-founded the Mattel toy company.
1917: During World War I, “Mark Sykes wrote to Lord Balfour that ‘The situation now is therefore that Zionist aspirations are recognized as legitimate by the French.’” Sykes was one of the leading British diplomats in the Middle East. This correspondence with Lord Balfour was part of the jockeying for Jewish support during World War I and possession of parts of the Ottoman Empire after the war ended.
1921: Birthdate of George David Weiss the New York native who “was an American songwriter and former President of the Songwriters Guild of America.”
1922: In Brooklyn, Samuel and Shirley Mandel, gave birth to Doctor Irwin D. Mandel, an expert on Dental Chemistry.
1925(15thof Nisan, 5685): As the Roaring Twenties hit their mid-point, Pesach
1926: In Vilna , Max and Sonia Silverstein gave birth to “Mike Silverstein, a founder of Nina Footwear, a women’s shoe company that grew from a SoHo loft to an international concern selling around 10 million pairs of shoes a year.”
1927: “Sacco and Vanzetti's final appeal was rejected, and the two were sentenced to death. Felix Frankfurter, then a professor at Harvard Law School, was considered to be the most prominent and respectable critic of the trial. He was appointed to the Supreme Court by Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1939.” (The Atlantic)
1928: Birthdate of Tom Lehrer, folk singer and famed creator of political and social musical parodies
1929: Birthdate of Harvey Lichtenstein, long-time President of the Brooklyn Academy of Music
1929:Betty and Walter Bridgland were married at a synagogue in Adelaid, Australia
1932: Birthdate of cartoonist Paul Krassner
1934: Israel B. Brodie announced that “more than a score of industrial nations will be represented at the third biennial Levant Fair to be held in Palestine.” Participating countries include Sweden, Great Britain, Italy, Japan and Czechoslovakia.
1935: Birthdate of comedian Avery Schreiber
1935: Americans took two first place finishes in the swimming events at the 2nd Maccabiah. George Sheinberg won the 100-meter back-stroke and Janice Lifson won the 100-meter free style competition.
1937: “Striptease Held Indecent by Court” published today described the legal outcome of a raid on Minsky’s Burlesque, precipitated in part, by the performance of Roxana Sand. Sand was born Golda Glickman and for five weeks in 1934 she had been the wife of the Jewish boxer King Levinsky.
1937: The Palestine Post reported that over 10 million boxes of citrus were shipped out from Palestine from the beginning of the citrus season 8,951,597 boxes of oranges and 1,218,896 of grapefruit.
1937: The Palestine Post reported that after Poland inaugurated a thrice-weekly air service to Palestine, the Italian airline Ala Littoria started a regular weekly hydroplane service to Haifa.
1937: The Palestine Post reported that the largest-ever single pilgrimage from England since 1888 including 1,050 English and Welsh tourists arrived in Haifa aboard the S.S. Duchess of Richmond. The pilgrims proceeded to Jerusalem by two special trains, 70 cars and 15 buses, accompanied by 70 guides. They took over, for three days, all available Jerusalem hostels and hotels.
1938: “Arturo Toscanini, who came to Palestine to conduct a series of concerts with the Palestine Orchestra, arrived in Haifa by plane this afternoon accompanied by his wife.” Among those greeting Toscanini was H.W. Steinberg, the conductor who has been rehearsing the orchestra and who will leave Palestine to become conductor of the N.B.C. Symphony Orchestra which Toscanini had been conducting.
1940: As the Germans invade Norway, Sigrid Helliesen Lund burnt the entire list of Czech Jewish who had taken refuge in the country.
1940: As a result of Operation Weserübung, Germans take control of Denmark. Three years later, the Danes will save their Jewish population from extermination by the Nazis in one of the most famous and daring rescue operations of the war.
1942: When the outnumbered U.S. and Filipino forces surrendered at Bataan today, Sergeant Louis Sachwald was among those who escaped capture as he was moved to Corregidor. Eventually he would be taken prisoner and would survive the infamous Bataan Death March and years of Japanese imprisonment.
1945: Formation of The United States Atomic Energy. Two of the first three Chairman of the Commission are Jewish. President Truman appointed David Lilienthal and President Eisenhower appointed Lewis Strauss. Neither of them were atomic scientists.
1946: Eleven hundred Jewish refugees who had been sailing from Spezia to Palestine and who were now being detained in Italy, went on a hunger. The leaders of the Jewish agency them not continue the fast for their own safety. They promised the refugees that the Jews of Eretz-Israel would fast in their place until they were allowed to conintue to the Jewish homeland.
1948(29th of Adar II, 5708): During the fighting that preceded the actual creation of the state of Israel, the Jewish defenders of Kastel had exhausted their supplies and were forced to withdraw. Kastel was a village that dominated the eastern end of the Tel Aviv – Jerusalem highway. The Haganah had taken at the start of Operation Nachshon and the Arabs were determined to retake the village. The last order given to the Jewish soldiers “by their platoon commander Shimon Alfasi, ‘All privates will retreat – all commanders will cover their withdrawal.’ Alfasi was killed in the battle, covering the retreat. His order became a watchword during many future actions. Abdel Kader, the commander of the Arab forces was killed in the closing moments of the battle. Without his leadership the Arabs gave up the village a couple of days later. The Jewish forces who were preparing to re-take the village were surprised to find that the village was there without any further loss of life.
1948: During the battle for Mishmar HaEmek, Israeli forces captured and destroyed Ghubayya al-Tahta
1952(14th of Nisan, 5712): Fast of the First Born
1952: The Jerusalem Postreported the Israeli official announcement that the reparation talks at The Hague had only been suspended.
1952: The Jerusalem Postreported that Israel observed the Pesach festival with all traditional holiday foods severely rationed and in a very short supply. Wine shops were well-stocked, but only the more expensive brands were available. Pesach chocolates, sweets and biscuits were completely absent. The sole bright spot was an ample supply of vegetables. Citrus fruit was either very hard to get or completely unavailable.
1952: The Jerusalem Postreported that the rubber industry, which employs over 1,000 workers, faced a complete shut-down owing to the shortage of raw materials.
1952: The Jerusalem Postreported The Palestine Conciliation Commission decided to consider an Israeli request that the Jewish property confiscated in Iraq would be charged against the abandoned Arab property in Israel.
1953: Warner Brothers premieres the first 3-D film, entitled House of Wax.
1954: President Eisenhower appointed Edward B. Lawson to serve as U.S. Ambassador to Israel.
1957: The Suez Canal was cleared for all shipping. This marked one of the final acts of the Suez Crisis that began in October of 1956 and resulted in a swift victory of the Israelis over the Egyptians. The Egyptians blocked the Suez Canal in attempt to get support from the world. In the end the Israelis left the Canal and the Sinai. The Egyptians would fail to honor their promises of peace and when they tried to destroy Israel again in 1967, the result was an even more devastating defeat for the Arabs.
1958(19thof Nisan, 5718): Sixty-seven year movie producer Solomon Max "Sol" Wurtzel passed away today. Such was his importance that none other than renowned director John Ford delivered his eulogoy.
1963: Birthdate ofMarc Jacobs, American fashion designer
1965: Birthdate of television executive Jeff Zucker.
1969: The "Chicago Eight" plead not guilty to federal charges of conspiracy to incite a riot at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois. Three of the “Eight” - Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin and Lee Weiner – were Jewish. The two lead defense attorneys were Jewish and the Judge hearing the case was also Jewish.
1973: Israel Defense Forces Special Forces units attacked several Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) targets in Beirut and Sidon, Lebanon in an action thought “to be part of the retaliation for the Munich massacre at the Summer Olympics in 1972.”
1976: In Israel, a car bomb was dismantled on Ben Yehudah Street shortly before it was to have exploded.
1984(7th of Nisan, 5744): Joseph G. Weisberg, editor and publisher of The Jewish Advocate, passed away Massachusetts General Hospital after becoming ill at his desk in Boston, where The Advocate is published. He was 73 years old. Mr. Weisberg, a graduate of Harvard College and the Harvard Law School, was head of The Advocate, an English- language weekly, for more than four decades. He was a founder and past president of the American Jewish Press Association and a director of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, a worldwide news service.
1988: Pitcher Jose Bautista, a native of the Dominican Republic, played his first major league game with the Baltimore Orioles.
1989: In the following article published today entitled “Unearthing a Roman City in Israel,” Matthew J. Reisz described the history of Beit Shean including the latest archeological discoveries at this ancient city whose ties to the Jewish people date back to the days of Saul and David.
http://www.nytimes.com/1989/04/09/travel/unearthing-a-roman-city-in-israel.html?pagewanted=print&src=pm
1990: “Telling the Seder's Story In the Voice of a Woman” published today provides Nadine Brozan’s description of the celebration of Pesach with a unique, feminist twist.
http://www.nytimes.com/1990/04/09/nyregion/telling-the-seder-s-story-in-the-voice-of-a-woman.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm
1990(14th of Nisan, 5750): Louis Rappaport, called Calev Ben-David and asked him to join him in interviewing Barbara Walters just hours before the start of the first Seder.
1995(9th of Nisan, 5755): Alisa Flatow, 20, was riding a public (Jewish) bus near the Israeli settlement of Kfar Darom when an Arab suicide bomber plowed his car into that bus. Alisa and seven Israeli soldiers, all under the age of 21, were killed. Alisa was one of 20 AMERICAN victims of the so-called "Peace" process!
1998(13th of Nisan, 5758): Fast of the First Born takes place today because the 14thof Nisan falls on a Friday.
2000: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including the recently released paperback editions of “For the Relief of Unbearable Urges” by Nathan Englander in which the author “combines a compassionate grasp of the Orthodox Jewish world with the skeptical irreverence of one estranged from yet still oddly defined by it,'' “The Last of the Just” by Andre Schwarz-Bart a French novel that chronicles the agonies of a Jewish family from 12th-century England to Nazi Germany,” and “Picture This” by Joseph Heller.
2002(27th of Nisan, 5762): Yom Ha Shoah
2002: A pro-Israel rally drew 4,000 supporters today in Miami Beach, FL.
2005(29th of Adar II, 5765): Author Andrea Dworkin passed away. Born in 1946, she was variously an anarchist, anti-war activist, radical feminists and an outspoken critic of pornography which viewed as being a cause of the violent attacks suffered by women.
2006: The Washington Post featured a review of Absolute Convictions: My Father, a City and the Conflict that Divided America by Eyal Press. The book is an account of the battle over abortion in the United States. The book is written by the son of Dr. Shalom Press, one of two doctors who performed abortions in Buffalo, New York. The other was Dr. Barnett Slepian who was murdered in his kitchen when he came home from Friday night Shabbat services. Interestingly enough, the local leaders of the anti-abortion movement are twin brother who had grown up in a Jewish home and had converted to Christianity before becoming “pro-life.”
2006: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Suite Francaise by Irène Némirovsky; translated by Sandra Smith
2006: Concentration camp survivor Emil Alperin of the Ukraine is pictured in an AP photo laying down flowers at Buchenwald near Weimar in eastern Germany as part of the commemoration ceremonies for the 61st anniversary of the liberation of the former Nazi concentration camp.
2007: Haaretz reported that archeologists digging in northern Israel have discovered evidence of a 3,000-year-old beekeeping industry, including remnants of ancient honeycombs, beeswax and what they believe are the oldest intact beehives ever found. The findings in the ruins of the city of Rehov include 30 intact hives dating to around 900 B.C.E., archaeologist Amihai Mazar of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem told The Associated Press.
2007(21st of Nisan, 5767: Seventh Day of Pesach: Reform Jews recite Yizkor on what is for them, is the last day of the holiday.
2007: In “Girls: Israel’s Racy New PR Strategy Israel” published today Kevin Peraino describes Israel’s flirtation with a new public-relations strategy”
http://israel21c.org/blog/newsweek-babes-in-the-holy-land-israel-flirts-with-a-racy-new-public-relations-strategy/
2008: Madeleine M. Kunin, the former governor of Vermont, the first Jewish woman governor and an ambassador under the Clinton administration, discusses and signs her new book, “Pearls, Politics, and Power: How Women Can Win and Lead,” at Busboys and Poets in Washington, D.C.
2008(4th of Nisan, 5768): 21-year-old Staff Sgt. Bisan Sayef from the village of Jatt was killed during clashes with Palestinian gunmen.
2008:April will be known as Jewish Heritage Month in New Jersey, thanks to legislation Gov. Jon Corzine signed at Passaic’s Ahavas Israel in front of a multi-ethnic group.
2009: In the following article entitled “So You Think Know Matzo?” published today in Time magazine, Claire Suddath provides a brief history of this famous unleavened bread.
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1890268,00.html
2009(15 Nisan 5769): First Day of Pesach
2009(15th of Nisan, 5769): US President Barack Obama will celebrate Passover tonight with staff and friends in what is believed to be the first White House Seder attended by an American president. President Obama is not the first US President to attend a Seder. That honor belongs to William Howard Taft who was the first president to attend a Seder while in office. In 1912, when he visited Providence, RI, he participated in the family Seder of Colonel Harry Cutler, first president of the National Jewish Welfare Board. Why did Taft go? Was it an act of brotherhood and good will or was it an act of political fence mending brought on by Taft’s support of measures that were harmful to Jewish immigration. Since 1912 was an election year and Taft was faced with a stiff challenge from Theodore Roosevelt, he needed all of the support he get from Jewish voters who had supported the Republican Party.
2010: The Westchester Film Festival is scheduled to show “Hello Goodbye” a romantic comedy about a Jewish couple from Paris who go through a midlife crisis and move to Tel Aviv staring Gérard Depardieu and Fanny Ardant.
2010: Rich Recht is scheduled to lead a musical and interactive Shabbat evening at the Historic Sixth and I Synagogue in Washington, D.C.
2011:Vadim Gluzman is scheduled to perform with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra.
2011: Machaya Klezmer, “the premier klezmer band,” is scheduled to perform at The Jewish Study Center Spring Fund Raiser at Tifereth Israel Congregation in Washington, DC.
2011: In Cedar Rapids, Iowa, the Jewish community gathered for shiva minyan at the home of Kate and Gary Goldstein in memory of Gary’s father, Harold Goldstein of blessed memory.
2011: Hamas said today that it “did not intend to target Israeli schoolchildren when they fired a rocket at a bus two days ago, critically wounding a teenager and moderately wounding the bus driver, in an attack that sparked the latest round of border fighting
2011: Today the Israel Defense Forces spokesman's office confirmed that IAF jets attacked three top Hamas officials in the Gaza strip, as well as a smuggling tunnel and a truck carrying ammunition, after southern Israel suffered a barrage of rockets overnight.
2011: This morning two additional Grad rockets were fired at Ofakim and 25 mortar shells were fired into the Eshkol Regional Council. Fifteen Grad-model rockets had been fired from the Gaza Strip into Israeli territory during the night. The Iron Dome rocket-defense system intercepted five of them in the Beersheba and Ashkelon areas, Israel Radio reported.
2011(5thof Nisan, 5771): Eight-six year old move director Sidney Lumet passed away today.
<a href="http://www.nytimes.