JUNE 17 In History
397: Roman Emperors Arcadius and Honorius issue the following order "The governors must be informed that, upon receipt of this notice, all insults attacking the Jews shall be averted and that their synagogues shall remain unmolested." This protection for Synagogues was not a sign of Philo-Semitism. Even with the rise of Christianity, the Emperors were concerned about maintain order in the Empire and allowing mobs to attack Jewish buildings would undermine their authority.
397: Roman Emperors Arcadius and Honorius issued a decree saying, "If Jews are harassed by a criminal charge or by debts then pretend that want to be subject to Christian law in order to avoid the criminal charges or debts by taking refuge in the church, they must be driven away. They cannot be received as Christians until they pay off all their debts or have been cleared of criminal charges.” As Christianity took on the trappings of a state-religion, some Jews sought to avoid paying debts by pretending to be Christians. Again, in the name of public order, the imperial system could not tolerate such behavior.
1025: Boleslaw I the Brave, first king of Poland, passed away. There were reports of Jews living in Poland during the time Mieszko I, Boleslaw’s father. Jews were reported to have been living in Gniezno, Poland’s first capital during the 10th and 11th century which included the reign of Boleslaw.
1239: Birthdate of King Edward I. Known as “Longshanks” Edward is famed for the “Model Parliament.” He is known to American filmgoers as the King who tortured and killed William Wallace. In Jewish history, he is the monarch who expelled the Jews from his realm in 1290, having extracted every economic advantage from them that was possible. Jews would not return as a community until the final days of the Tudors.
1242: At the decree of Pope Gregory IX and King Louis, all copies of the Talmud were confiscated in
Paris
. Declaring that the reason for the stubbornness of the Jews was their study of the Talmud, the Pope called for an investigation of the Talmud that resulted in its condemnation and burning. Twenty-four cartloads of Hebrew manuscripts were publicly burned. Rabbi Meir was an eyewitness to the public burning of the twenty-four cartloads of Talmudic manuscripts (and he bewailed this tragedy in his celebrated "Kina" Shaali serufah (שאלי שרופה) which is still recited on Tisha B'Av.
1244: According to one source the above captioned happened Erev Shabbat Chukath, 5004
1462: Vlad III the Impaler attempted to assassinate Mehmed II forcing him to retreat from Wallachia. Fortunately for the Jewish people, the attempt on his life failed. When Mehmed conquered Constantinople he was warmly greeted by the city’s Jews. Over the years, he welcomed Jews fleeing from Europe and urged them to settle in his domain. The Jews were so grateful that they even formed a regiment called “The Sons of Moses” to fight under Mehmed’s banner.
1501: John I Albert (or Olbracht in Polsih) passed away. In 1495 King Jan I Olbracht transferred Krakow Jews to the nearby royal city of Kazimierz, which gave rise to its once bustling Jewish quarter and a major European center of the Diaspora for the next three centuries. With time it turned into virtually separate and self-governed 34-acre Jewish Town, a model of every East European shtetl, within the limits of the gentile city of Kazimierz. As refugees from all over Europe kept coming to find the safe haven here, its population reached 4,500 by 1630.
1590: In Lisbon, Estevainha Gomes of Faro was burned at the stake by the Inquistion. The first records of Jews living in Faro dates from the reign of Alfonso III in the 13th century. Descendants of the Faro Jewish community were among the first members of Bevis Marks Synagogue in London.
1696: John III Sobieski, King of Poland, passed away. John III Sobieski is best remembered as commander who defeated the Turks at Vienna. According to tradition, the first bagels were baked by Jewish bakers in Vienna to commemorate the victorious charge by the Polish cavalry. The bagel was shaped to look like a stirrup (key equipment for cavalrymen) and one of the first one baked was given to John III. Modern day scholarship has challenged the legend, but the legend lives on.
1731: At an auto-de-fe in Lisbon four men and eight women were condemned. A majority of the 12 were burnt at the stake. On this particular Sunday four men and eight women were present at the auto-de-fe of Lisbon. A majority of them were burned alive. A total of 71 other persons were sentenced at this event. Duarte Navarro, an 83 year old New Christian, was among those condemned for Judaizing.
1761: In Nancy, France, 22 year old Jacob Alexandre was sentenced to be hanged for receiving communion. Alexandre was Jewish and had violated the canon law that “bars non-Christians from receiving communion.” On appeal, Alexandre’s sentence was commuted to a lifetime in the galleys. Apparently Alexandre was a near-do well who thought that as an apostate Jew he would be will taken care of by the Catholics. While he took on their manners and customs, he tried to have the best of both worlds by not actually converting, a fact that caught up with him and proved to be his undoin.
1775: The Battle of Bunker Hill (which actually took place at Breed’s Hill) fought on this date shows that American troops can stand against British professionals. Aaron Solomon was among the volunteers braving the British assaults. In 1823, prominent Bostonians established a committee to build a monument to honor the American “moral” victory. It would take twenty years to raise the funds and actually build the
Bunker Hill
Monument
. Famed Jewish businessman, veteran of the Battle of New Orleans, and philanthropist, Judah Turo donated the amazing large sum (for the early 19th century) of ten thousand dollars to this effort.
1807: M.J. Bing writes to Nathan Rothschild asking that Nathan deal directly with him and not through his father.
1811: Mordechai Manuel Noah (a Sephardi) accepted the appointment as American Consul General at Tunis, "supported as I should with the wealth and influence of forty-thousand residents." Noah was the first Jew to be appointed to a diplomatic post by an U.S. President. The President was James Madison.
1815: In Kovno, Rabbi Tzemach Sachs and his wife gave birth to Russo-French Hebrew scholar Senior Sachs.
1825(1st of Tammuz, 5585): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz
1829: Birthdate of German rabbi and historian. Meyer Kayserling. Born in
Hanover
, He was educated at Halberstadt, Nikolsburg (Moravia),
Prague
, Würzburg, and
Berlin
. He devoted himself to history and philosophy. Encouraged in historical researches by Leopold von Ranke, Kayserling turned his attention to the history and literature of the Jews of Iberia. n 1861 the Aargau government appointed him rabbi of the Swiss Jews, which office he held until 1870. During his residence in
Switzerland
he argued in favor of civil equality for his coreligionists, both then and later facing the charges brought against them. In 1870 he accepted a call as preacher and rabbi to the Jewish community of
Budapest
. Kayserling was a member of the
Royal
Academy
in
Madrid
, of the Trinity Historical Society, and others. He died at
Budapest
in 1905.
1832: Birthdate of Abraham Cohn, the native of Prussia who was an American Civil War Union Army Sergeant Major and recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor “for having distinguished himself at the Battle of the Wilderness, Virginia …and the Battle of the Crater, Petersburg, Virginia…”
1834: After three days, a pogrom in Safed came to an end leaving much of the Jewish “homeless, distraught” and impoverished.
1847: Grace Aguilar, her brother Emanuel and their mother Sara left to catch a steamer that would take them to Ostend where her brother had arranged for her to seek medical treatment for her depression and headaches.
1852(30th of Sivan, 5612): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz
1856: An article entitled “Who are Jews?” explained that whenever the term Jew is used “in our police reports or elsewhere in the Times” it is not a reference to the religion of those described but “solely the designation of their nationality.”
1856: The Republican Party opens its 1st national convention in
Philadelphia
. The Republican Party included a strong abolitionist strain; the party adopted a stance of opposing the expansion of slavery into the Western territories. The party nominee was John C. Fremont and the party slogan was free soil, free men, Fremont. Many Jews were drawn to the party because of its anti-slavery stance including Moritz Prinner who edited a German-language abolitionist paper in strife torn
Kansas
. Prinner was joined at the 1860 Republican convention by other Jews including Lewis Naphtali Dembitz, uncle of future Supreme Court Justice Louis Dembitz Brandies who nominated Lincoln and Sigismund Kaufman of New York. Abraham Jonas of
Illinois
was another early member of the Republican Party and served as one of
Lincoln
’s campaign managers in 1860.
1859: New York Rabbi Morris Jacob Rapall officiated at the consecration of the United Hebrew Congregation’s new building which was located on 6th Street between Locust and St. Charles streets. Founded in 1837, historian Jonathan Sarna describes it as the oldest synagogue west of the Mississippi River.
1877: “The Jews in Turkey” published today, traces the history of the Jewish population in the Ottoman Empire from the days when they first came to Macedonia during the reign of Alexander the great. Today “the Jewish element in the population of Turkey is strongly represented in Macedonia….because” in part “it is the richest quarter of the empire;”
1879: It was reported today that young Richard J.H. Gotthell read an essay at the commencement ceremony of the Temple Emanu-El Preparatory School of the Hebrew College that were being over-seen by his father, the rabbi, Dr. Gottheil.
1881: “Fashionable” Parisians attended a concert to raise funds to aid Jews living in Russia.
1882(30th of Sivan, 5642): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz
1882: Lewis and Rose Barnet were seriously injured when the fell down the equivalent of 3 stories when the fire escape in their tenement gave way. The two Austrian born Jews lived on the 5th floor of a building that housed Kenneseth Israel, a congregation of Polish and Russian Jews. Supposedly the building had been fully inspected and passed without any problems. [Unfortunately, accidents like this were all too typical on the lower East Side and were the result of a combination of shoddy construction and graft.]
1882: Josiah Cohen, a Jewish lawyer living in Pittsburgh, will probably be selected to be the Republican nominee for an at-large Congressional seat.
1883: It was reported today that that the Czars coronation is being celebrated with balls and galas in St. Petersburg and Moscow. In Kiev and Rostov on the Don the celebrations have taken another form – serious disturbances including attacks on the Jews of the area.
1884: In Leadville, CO, the Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Schloss, prominent Jewish leaders of the community hosted a soiree that including chess competition in which J.H. Zucketort played six opponents simultaneously. The visiting champion won three and lost three.
1885: “The Statue of Liberty, a gift from the people of France, arrives in New York harbor aboard the she Isere.” “The Jewish American poet Emma Lazarus saw the statue as a beacon to the world. A poem she wrote to help raise money for the pedestal, and which is carved on that pedestal, captured what the statue came to mean to the millions who migrated to the United States seeking freedom, and who have continued to come unto this day.”
1886: It was reported today that Levi P. Morton has been chosen as Chairman of the Republican County Committee despite his previous statement refusing to accept the position even if he were chosen to fill it. Friends of the Jewish community leader hope to be able to convince him to change his name.
1887: It was reported today that Justice Rhinehart has reserved his decision in the suit brought by Samuel Colman against Charles Frank, a matrimonial agent who had promised to help him woo and win a young Jewess named Wolf and a counter-suit brought by Frank against Colman for money owed for providing him help in this matter. [Matchmaker, matchmaker, make me a match]
1888: It was reported today that Mrs. Katie Levy, the wife of Albert Levy, has filed an alienation of affection suit against her mother-in-law, Mrs. Pauline Levy in which she is seeking $50,000 in damages. The younger Mrs. Levy is a Roman Catholic who claims that her mother-in-law has interfered with her marriage because she wanted her son to marry a rich Jewish girl.
1888: it was reported today It was reported today that Rabbi Gottheil of Temple Emanu-El described the later Emperor Wilhelm of Germany as a “noble soul” who was “an ideal ruler…loved by all men.” He saw him as a friend of the Jewish people since he said that “Germany has lost an Emperor…the oppressed a champion and Israel a true friend. [For those who grew equating Germany with Nazis and the Holocaust, this positive view of Germany and German leaders might come as a bit of a surprise.]
1889: Among the items found inside a chest with a false-bottom that was being inspected by government agents as it was being unloaded from Hamburg American steamship Gellert were “23 fine seamless woolen shirts” like those worn by Orthodox Jews.” (Who would have guessed there was such a market?)
1892: It was reported today that the highlight of annual exhibition of the Hebrew Technical Institute was “the twenty-light Edison continuous dynamo that illuminates the laboratory” which was made by last year’s and this year’s graduates without any outside assistance.
1893: It was reported today that Jacob A. Schiff and Joseph Bloomingdale are sending the top five students from the senior class of the Hebrew Technical Students – Martin Loewing, Max Goldstein, Louis Wohlgemuth, Albert Finkelstein, and Henry L. Rubovitz – and the two top students in the Junior Class – Samuel Druskin and Solomon Lurie – to the 1893 World’s Fair.
1894: It was reported today the August Bebel gave a speech to the Social Democratic Party in which he called for Jewish members to play a less public role in public affairs. This way the party would avoid suffering from the current wave of anti-Semitism. Jewish members including Emanuel Wurm and Paul Singer objected to his proposal saying that there must be a better way of dealing with “the Jew-baiters.” The matter will be voted on at the next meeting of the next Social Democratic Congress.
1895: In south Sweden, August and Mathilda Andersson gave birth to Ruben Andersson who would gain fame as Ruben Ruasing the founder of Tetra Pak.
1896: The upcoming Commencement Exercises of the Hebrew Technical Institute and an outing for members of the Young Folks’ League of the Hebrew Infant Asylum were two of the items listed in today’s Coming Events Column.
1896: “Incidents of the Day” included an explanation of why a Rabbi was chosen to give the opening prayer at the Republican National Convention. The party is split between factions representing the American Protective Association, an anti-immigrant, anti-Catholic organization and delegates who are Catholics. The managers for William McKinley who is the probable nominee chose a rabbi because the choide of Protestant minister or Catholic priest would have split the Convention. To make matters worse the Rabbi is a Democrat and members of his family are active in the local Democratic Party. (Echoes of the APA can be heard in the 21st century as the United States debates the immigration issue.)
1897: Herzl moves the Zionist Congress to Basel.
1897: As of today, the Young Men’s Hebrew Association is reported to have 1,000 members.
1897: Having already donated a brownstone at 861 Lexington Avenue valued at $20,000 to the Young Men’s Hebrew Association, Jacob Schiff has authorized YMHA President Percival S. Menken to spend an additional $30,000 to purchase property and equipment so it will have a facility that will include a meeting hall, gymnasium and reference library.
1897: Tonight, the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church completed its investigation of charges of immorality and untruthfulness leveled against Herman Warszawiak and found him guilty. Warszawiak was a convert who had been conducting a mission on Grand Street to convert other Jews.
1898: Birthdate of German professor of crystallography Carl Hermann. Hermann was a Quaker and a man of rare courage. “When the Nazi Party rose to power, he refused their political restrictions on academic positions, leaving to take a position as a physicist with industrial dye firm I.G. Farbenwerke at
Ludwigshafen
, where he continued his crystallographic research and studied symmetry in higher-dimensional spaces. During the war that followed, he and his wife Eva helped many Jews hide and escape persecution and death, for which he himself spent much time in prison and was sentenced to death. As he was an eminent scientist with influential friends, the sentence was never carried out, and he survived.
1898: In Cincinnati, Ohio at the Mound Street Temple, Rabbi Isaac M. Wise will confer the degrees at the graduation exercises of the Hebrew Union College
1898: In Austria, “gangs of peasants…attacked and plundered the Jewish shops at Frysztak near Rzeszow” wounding several Jews.
1899: The United Hebrew Charities has told immigration authorities that no expense is to be spared in caring for Julia Lichtner, the 12 year old youngster, who became an orphan when her father jumped overboard while they were returning to New York aboard a White Star liner out of LIverpool. If it can be proven that she really was born in the United States, she will be classified as a U.S. citizens “and place in a home where she can be taken care of with money given by passengers” of the ship.
1901(30th of Sivan, 5661): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz
1903: Herzl writes to Lord Rothschild that there is a chance to get a good piece of land from the Sultan
1905: Fire destroys 130 houses in
Constantinople
inhabited by Jews. 400 families rendered homeless.
1908: Birthdate of Trude Weiss-Rosmarin who became a major commentator on the nature of American Jewish life.
1914: Birthdate of author John Hersey. Hersey was not Jewish. In fact he was born in
China
, the son of missionaries. Jews should remember as the author of The Wall, which was a gripping account of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, and the events that led up to it. What makes this book even more of a standout was that Hersey wrote it in 1950 long before the Holocaust genre became an acceptable literary topic and motif for Jewish authors, let alone non-Jewish authors. Hersey passed away in 1993 after a long and distinguished career.
1915: Birthdate of Dr. Bernard Lander, the Orthodox rabbi who was one of the founders of, and first president of Touro College
1917: In Great Britain, as the conflict between Zionists and anti-Zionist heated-up the Board of Deputes condemened the letter that David Lindo Alexander had sent to The Times of London specifying “grave objections” to the Zionist agenda. The vote of censure forced Alexander resign his Presidency of the Board of Deputies.
1917: In Nevada, Jewish community leaders met and formed a committee to raise funds for the construction of Reno's first Synagogue.
1920: Birthdate of Dr. Dr. François Jacob the native of Nancy whose combat wounds sustained while fighting in WW II “forced him to change his career paths from surgeon to scientist, a pursuit that led to a Nobel Prize in 1965 for his role in discovering how genes are regulated.” (As reported by William Yardley)
1930: Police Captain F.M. Scott was stabbed in Jaffa during a clash with an Arab crowd following the execution of three Arabs at Acre.
1930: During a recording session” today, “just after completing Chopin's E major Scherzo, pianist” Leopold Godowsky “suffered a severe stroke which left him partially paralyzed. Godowsky's remaining years were overshadowed by the event, leaving him deeply depressed.”
1933: German Jews were shocked by news of the murder of Dr. Chaim Arlosoroff in Tel Aviv. During a recent trip to Berlin, Arlosoroff had outlined a plan for settling German Jews in Palestine; a plan that they feared would die with the Zionist leader.
1935: Birthdate of Frederick Delano Newman who became an eccentric gadfly in the world of New York politics.
1936: Himmler was put in charge of the S.S. as Chief of the German Police. This vicious little man was the architect of evil, the person who actually ran the killing machine that was known as the Holocaust. Several of the SS officers on the Eastern Front held Himmler in contempt. It seems that on the one visit he made to watch the Killing Squads at work, he could not stand the sight and vomited. He was also stupid enough to believe at the end of the war that he could negotiate a separate peace with the Western Allies and get them to join the Nazis sans-Hitler in a war against the Soviets.
1936: As Arab violence intensified, The Palestine Post reported that Jacob Gerson, the lorry driver ambushed on the Kastel bends of the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv road, became the 32nd Jew to be killed by Arabs since April 19. Scores of Arab leaders and agitators were interned at Sarafand. The Yishuv launched a Relief and Consolidation Fund to assist all those who suffered through the disturbances. The government announced a new scheme for the opening and improving the Old City of Jaffa.
1936(27th of Sivan, 5696): “Dr Julius Brodnitz, attorney and President of the Central Union of Jews in German passed away” today in Berlin at the age of 68. Born in Posen, Dr. Brodnitz came to Berlin in 1894 where he pursued a successful legal career and become a leader in Jewish communal affairs. Although he had not originally been a Zionist, his views changed after the Nazis came to power. He visited Palestine in April and was no longer opposed to Jewish immigration to Eretz Israel.
1936: Senator Royal Copeland, who spoke out against the Nazi regime as early as June, 1933, passed away today.
1937: Marx Brothers' "A Day At The Races" opens in New York
1938: Royal S. Copeland who served as Republican Senator from Michigan and then as a Democratic Senator from New York passed away. In the spring of 1933, Copeland spoke out against the abuse of the Jews by the Nazis on the floor of the U.S. Senate. In 1936, during the Arab Uprising, he was part of delegation of U.S. Senators who went to Palestine to get a first-hand view of what was going on and how the British were administering the mandate. Upon his return, he introduced a resolution on the floor of the Senate condemning the British attempts to unilaterally modify the mandate especially as it pertained to attempts to limit Jewish immigration and purchase of land.
1939: After being denied access to
Cuba
and the
United States
, the German refugee ship
St. Louis
docks in
Antwerp
,
Belgium
.
Belgium
offers to take 214 passengers, the
Netherlands
181,
Britain
287, and
France
224. Ultimately, the Nazis will murder most of the passengers except for those accepted by
Great Britain
.
1940: As the Nazis sweep through the low countries and France, Edmond Michelet distributed leaflets calling for a continuation of the war. This was considered to be the first act of French Resistance during WW II coming one day before De Gaulle’s appeal to the French nation.
1941: Reinhard Heydrich briefs Einsatzgruppen commanders on the implementation of the "Final Solution."
1941: French priests in the
Lyon
diocese publicly protest the
Vichy
government's anti-Jewish policies.
1943: Sixty four of the remaining Jews in the German city of Wuerzburg were deported. 7 were sent to Theresienstadt and 57 were deported to Auschwitz
http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/this_month/june/12.asp
1944: In
Budapest
, SS General Veesenmayer notified
Berlin
that from April 29, 1944 until this date 340,000 Hungarian Jews had now been deported to the death camps. Among them was the family of Nobel Prize Winner Elie Wiesel.
1944: For the next seven days, the Jews of Budapest, Hungary, are confined to specially marked "Jewish buildings."
1946: Birthdate of Barry Manilow. Born Barry Alan Pincus, in
Brooklyn
, he was the son of Edna Manilow and Harold Pincus. Apparently somebody thought his mother’s less ethnic name would lead to greater fame. No less an arbiter of pop culture than Rolling Stones named him "Showman of the Generation."
1946: Operaton Markolet, or Night of the Bridges, a Haganah operation meant to immobilize the transportation system by blowing up the bridges linking Palestine to the surrounding Arab states came to a successful close.
1946: Lehi attack the railway operations at Haifa.
1946: In an unusual turn of events Haganah completed attacks on railways and bridges in Eretz Israel.“Haganah united launched the most daring attack of their underground campaign by blowing up ten of the eleven bridges connecting Palestine with surrounding nations.”
1947: Al Langer opened Langer’s Deli in Los Angeles. The MacArthur Park eatery would stand the test of time. Tragically, Mr. Langer passed away at the age of 94, a week after his signature deli celebrated its 60thanniversary.
1950: According to reports published today, peace talks resumed this week between Israel and King Abdullah of Jordan. The talks centered on creating a corridor that will give Jordan access to the Mediterranean possibly at Gaza which is held by Egypt. The Egyptians might agree to the deal, according to these same reports, if the Jordanians and Israelis would take responsibility for the quarter of million refugees in Gaza whom the Egyptians are controlling with a military garrison.
1951: Central system of
Israel
's underground water supply was dedicated in
Northern Negev
. This was the start of a project dear to the heart of David Ben Gurion. He saw the Negev as vital to the growth of the new Jewish State. He was determined to bring water to this arid region and make the "Desert Bloom."
1951: The Jerusalem Post reported that only 40 per cent of the electorate voted in the Zionist Congress elections. In Tel Aviv Mapai scored 45, Herut 20, and Mapam 16 percent of the vote; the rest was divided among small parties. In Jerusalem Mapai scored 54, Herut 17, Hapoel Hamizrahi 16, Mapam 8 and Progressives 4 percent of the vote, the rest being divided among small parties.
1951: Left-wing labor leaders called a one-hour strike in Tel Aviv harbor today to block loading of a cargo of citrus juice concentrates which was a gift from the Republic of Korea, also known as South Korea which was engaged in a bitter war with communist North Korea.
1952: “A home for 75 girls donated by the Goodwin Welfare League of Brooklyn was dedicated this afternoon as part of the Children’s City build around the Ponievez Talmudic College at B’nai Brak, a suburb of Tel Aviv.
1953: Supreme Court Justice William O Douglas issued an order staying the executions for convicted spies Julius and Ethel Rosenberg which are scheduled for the next day. The
Rosenbergs
were part of a plethora of Jews who were involved in both sides of this famous spy case. However, the anti-Semites who sought to use the
Rosenberg
case as proof of Jewish perfidy never talked about he Jews who prosecuted the case of the Jewish judge who imposed the death sentence.
1956: Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion names Golda Meir to replace Moshe Sharett as Foreign Minister.
1958: Birthdate of Jonathan David Leibowitz who served as Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission during the Obama administration.
1961(3rd of Tammuz, 5721): Actor Jeff Chandler passes away at the age of 40 due to complications from surgery. Born Ira Grossel in Brooklyn, New York, handsome matinee idol gained his greatest fame and Oscar nomination playing the role of the Apache Chief Cochise in “Broken Arrow,” a western depicting attempts to establish a truce between the Indians and the white settlers on the Arizona Frontier.
1963: The United States Supreme Court rule 7 to 2 in Sherbert v Werner that a an employee who refused to work on Saturday because it was the Sabbath and was terminated for that did not lose the right to collect unemployment benefits. As is often the case, the sabbatarian was not Jewish. In this case she was a Seven Day Adventist.
1963: The United States Supreme Court ruled 8 to 1 in Abington School District v. Schemppagainst allowing the reciting of Bible verses and the Lord's Prayer in public schools. As is so often the case in litigation involving separation of church and state,, the plaintiffs were not Jewish. In this case they were Unitarians. The opinions of the Justices clearly state the importance of religion in
America
, but they also are quite clear that it does not belong in public venues such as schools.
1967: Moshe Dayan ordered the responsibility for the Haram, which had been under Israeli military control for a week, to be restored to the Muslims. He also insisted that all Muslims, whether living in
Israel
or the
West Bank
be allowed to pray at the Haram.
1967: Barbra Streisand performed “A Happening in
Central Park
.”
1968(21st of Sivan, 5728):Sir Andrew Benjamin Cohen KCMG KCVO OBE, who served as Governor of Uganda from 1952 to 1957 passed away. Born in 1909, Sir Andrew was “a descendant of Levi Barent Cohen, the founder of the oldest Ashkenazi family in Britain.”
1969: “Arthur Rubinstein – The Love of Life” (FL'Amour de la vie – Artur Rubinstein) a 1969 documentary about pianist, Arthur Rubinstein which won the 1969 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature was released to movie theatres today.
1970: Birthdate of actor Michael Showalter
1972: In Washington, DC, five men were arrested at the Watergate complex marking the start of the Watergate Scandal which would end the Presidency of Richard M. Nixon. None of the principles in the burglary or the cover-up were Jewish. According to some Henry Kissinger played a role in the creation of the Plumbers when he complained about the leaks to the press that were hampering his diplomatic negotiations. In 1973, during the Yom Kippur, there were those who wondered if the politically wounded Nixon would come to the aide of the Israelis. He did and the decision had no impact on what was going on in Washington.
1976: The Jerusalem Post reported that the US Ambassador to Lebanon Francis Meloy, his Economic Counselor Robert Waving and their Lebanese driver were kidnapped and later found murdered in a Muslim area of Beirut.
1976: The Jerusalem Post reported that King Hussein of Jordan, on the eve of his visit to the Soviet Union, said that he was ready to purchase Russian missiles even if it angered the U.S.
1976: The Jerusalem Post reported that the citizens of Tel Aviv were promised a complete restoration of their beach-front promenade to its former glory.
1984: In “God the Implausible Kinsman,” Arthur A. Cohen reviewed Responses to Catastrophe in Modern Jewish Culture. by David G. Roskies
http://www.nytimes.com/1984/06/17/books/god-the-implausible-kinsman.html?scp=2&sq=Avrom+Sutzkever&st=nyt&pagewanted=print
1987: In Tel Aviv, a program created by Sara Levi-Tanay is scheduled to open at the Inbal Yemenite Dance Theatre where she is the choreographer.
1996(30th of Sivan, 5756): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz
1996(30th of Sivan, 5756): Thomas Samuel Kuhn, who wrote and taught about the history and philosophy science, passed away. A Guggenheim Fellow, Kuhn won the George Stanton Medal for his work in the history of science.
2001: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Does American Need A Foreign Policy? by Henry Kissinger and Borrowed Tides by Paul Levinson.
<