JUNE 21 In History
356 B.C.E.: Birthdate of Alexander the Great. Alexander traveled back forth across
Judea
; first when he went down to conquer
Egypt
and then when he came back from his Egyptian conquest and moved east to conquer more of the
Persian Empire
. There is a tale about him coming to
Jerusalem
, but it is a myth that illustrates the positive attitude the Jews of that time had towards Alexander. He is treatment of the Jews was tolerant since he left them to practice their religion in peace and Jews found it easy to settle throughout his newly conquered domains.
120 (18 Sivan 3881): This date marked the passing of Rabbi Gamliel II. Rabbi Gamliel was the successor to Rabbi Johanan Ben-Zakkai who had set up the Talmudic Academy in Yavneh after the war against
Rome
. Gamliel helped establish a new spiritual leadership and designed the foundation for survival in the Diaspora. He played a key role in keeping the peace between the Jewish community and
Rome
.
1305: King Wenceslaus II of Bohemia died. During the Rindfleisch massacres in 1298, King Wenceslaus II had extorted large sums from Bohemian Jewry for protection.
1498: Citizens of Nuremberg, Bavaria received permission to expel its Jews from Emperor Maximillian
1527: NIccolo dei Machiavelli, the author of The Prince, passed away today.
http://www.jewishworldreview.com/0699/machiavelli1.asp
1689: The Maisel Synagogue burned today when fire swept through the ghetto in Prague. Built in the early 1590’s it takes its name from Mordechai and Frumel Maisel, who financed its construction. Today a rebuilt version of the synagogue services a Jewish Museum in Prague.
1749: Twenty-eight year old Simon von Geldern returned to Vienna from a journey which he claimed took him to North Africa, Jerusalem and other lands inhabited by Bedouins. The son of Joseph von Geldern, a wealthy German physician with whom he had a falling out, Simon was the great-uncle of Heinrich Heine who kindly referred to him as “an adventurer and Utopian dreamer.”
1749: Founding
Halifax
,
Nova Scotia
. Within a year, Jews were living in
Halifax
and by 1752 there were approximately 30 Jews living in the newly founded city. The Jewish population would grow slowly and sporadically. A congregation would not be formed until the end of the 19th century.
1787; New Hampshire becomes the 9th state to ratify the United States Constitution which means the Constitution has been ratified by enough states to make it the law of the land. New Hampshire was one of the last states to change its laws so that Jews could hold office. The final change took place in 1877. As can be seen from the attached article about the Jewish community in Bethlehem, NH, life has changed for the better for Jews living in the Granite State.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/06/11/in_nh_town_a_cultural_widening/
1812: Birthdate of Moses Hess. Moses Hess was an early advocate of a league of nations and a Jewish state in
Palestine
. His most famous work was entitled
Rome
and
Jerusalem
published in 1862. He died in 1875
1819(28th of Sivan, 5579): Forty-six year old Hirschel Eliazer Kann, the founder of Lisa & Kann passed away at Den Haag, Zuid-Holland, Nederland
1841: In Philadelphia, Fannie and Abraham Dessau gave birth to future communal leader Minnie Dessau Louis. (As reported by Seth Korelitz)
http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/louis-minnie-dessau
1845: Ralph Bernal Osborne, the eldest son of London Sephardic Spanish Jewish Parliamentarian Ralph Bernal, was the first person listed in the Railway Times as a member of “the provisional committee for the Leicester, Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Burton-upon-Trent and Stafford Junction Railway” a railway that was never built.
1854: An article entitled "Gleanings from the Mail" published today cites a report appearing in the Boston Advertiser that "the Jews of the Holy Land are suffering great distress from destitution."
1861: In Chicago, the Sinai Congregation dedicated its first temple on Monroe Street between Clark and La Salle in which the “Einhorn ritual” was used for the first time in “a Western congregation.”
1873: The committee in charge of the excursions to be taken by the children who are the responsibility of the Hebrew Orphan Asylum and Free Schools, most of whom are from poor homes, announced their plans for the first outing which is scheduled to take place in two days.
1877: Following publication of Judge Hilton’s explanation of his decision to ban Mr. Seligman from the Grand Union Hotel, the New York Times published a series of letters grouped under the headings of “The Jewish Side of the Question” and the “The Other Side”. The letters under “The Other Side” described the undesirability of Jews as a class and as hotel guests which made Hilton’s decision not only understandable but correct. The letters under “The Jewish Side of the Question” included derisive comments on Hilton’s attempt to differentiate between a “Hebrew” and a “Jew” as well as refutation of his claim that he was willing to admit certain acceptable Hebrews since the daughter of one of those mentioned had, in fact, been turned away from the Grand Union.
1878: Today six speakers took part in an oratorical contest at Yale University in which the contestants were competing for De Forest Medal. The third speaker was H.C. Coe, a Jew who spoke on “The Ancient and Modern Jew.” The sixth and final speaker was Louis Hood of Newark who also spoke on “The Ancient and Modern Jew.” While all of the speakers were impressive, Hood walked off with the prize
1881: Birthdate of Dov Ber Borochov,a Marxist Zionist and one of the founders of the Labor Zionist movement as well as a pioneer in the study of Yiddish as a language. He passed away in 1917.
1880: “Politics of Europe and Asia” published today brought news about the conference being held in Madrid called to deal with the situation in Morocco. Senor Ludolf is schedule to introduce a resolution supported by the United State, Portugal and Germany that calls for religious liberty and better treatment of the Jews.
1880: It was reported today that of the five and half million people living in Belgium only 15,000 are Protestants and 3,000 are Jews while all the rest are Catholics.
1887: The Jews of London celebrated the first day of the 51st year of the reign of Queen Victoria over Great Britain at the Synagogue on St. James Place in Aldgate. The crowded sanctuary was decorated for the occasion and the attendees were treated to a choral service.
1888: “Barge Office Prizes” published today described the commercial activities that surrounded the sale and purchase of the “unclaimed, abandoned, and seized goods.” Before Ellis Island, the Barge Office was the point of entry for immigrants arriving in New York. The majority of the those involved in the examination and purchase of the goods were reportedly Jews.
1888: It was reported today that a rescript has been published ordering that a eulogy be read in all churches at upcoming Sunday services. The offering of a eulogy by the Jews appears to have been optional. [Given the response of Rabbis in New York, it is safe to assume that many Jews mourned the passing of the first modern Kaiser.]
1890: Mr. Comstock of the Society for the Suppression of Vice recognized a man named Marcus Goldstein who had been arrested for trying to obtain plates with which to make counterfeit lottery tickets as Mordecai S. Blaustein “whom he had arrested just four years ago in Orchard Street for swindling poor people” by selling them “bogus lottery tickets.” After having been convicted in 1886, this Polish Jew had been sentenced to 6 months at Blackwell/s Island. According to Comstock, Blaustein or Goldstein was first found to be swindling people on the lower east side in 1881 but he jumped bail and hid out in Chicago.
1891: “Jew Baiting” published today included a detailed review of Les Juifs De Russie Recueil D’Articles Et D’Etudes Sur Leur Situation Legale Sociale Et Economique (The Russian Jews: Collection of Articles and Studies on Their Legal, Social and Economic Situation) by Leopold Cerf.
1892: Birthdate of American theologian Reinhold Niebuhr His views on Jews evolved over time from his early days as a minister in Detroit. He warned against the rise of anti-Semitism in Hitler’s Germany and came to the conclusion that it was wrong to try and convert Jews. He expressed his strong pro-Zionist sentiments in “Our Stake in the State of Israel”
http://www.tnr.com/book/review/our-stake-in-the-state-israel
http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/multimedia/video/2008/wallace/niebuhr_reinhold_t.html
1894: Edward Lauterbach, the Republican Jewish political leader was among those participating in the hearings being held at the Constitutional Convention in Albany.
1896: The St. Louis Republic described the decision to choose Rabbi Samuel Sale to deliver the opening prayer at the Republican Convention. According to the Republic, Sale had not been chosen as a compromise to avoid offending the APA and the Catholics but had been chosen because Baron Rothschild of London had sent a telegram requesting that this be done. However, the reporter for the Republic had not seen the telegram and could not find anybody else who had.
1896: Members of the Young Folk’s League of the Hebrew Infant Asylum are scheduled to enjoy an outing today aboard the SS Bay Queen
1897: “Family Left Destitute” published today described the plight of the Cohen family of New Haven. Mrs. Cohen’s husband disappeared without explanation and she thought he had deserted her. Actually, he had been killed in railway accident in New York City. Authorities shipped the widow and her four children to New York where they are now in the care of the Hebrew Sheltering House Association.
1897: “Hebrew School In Chicago” published today described a soon to be opened educational institution in the Windy City where all instruction and conversation will be in Hebrew. While classes will be offered in “the primary scholastic branches,” “the Hebrew Bible will be the principle subject of study.
1897: Herman Warszawiak, the converted Jewish missionary, who had been expelled by the Presbyterians after having been found guilty of performing immoral acts including gambling was not available for public comment even though he had earlier said the conviction had come because some did not want a converted Jew to be a minister in the Presbyterian Church.
1898: At Orange, NJ, 58 year old Getta Scholle, the vice president of the Home For Aged and Infirm Hebrews who was the widow of Jacob Scholle, passed away today.
1899: “The Hebrew Hoodlums of the Lower East Side” published today
1899: “Boys in Religious War” published today described events leading up to a public brawl between over one Jewish and Christian boys in Chicago. The Christians, who attend several local parochial schools, have been taunting and attacking the Jewish boys who finally fought back. At first the Christians had the better of the battle, but the Jews found reinforcements and surrounded their attackers. At this point, the police intervened and arrested some of the battlers.
1899: The Jews of Chicago are planning on presenting Captain Dreyfus “with a gold-mounted, diamond-set and richly engraved sword.” They are planning on presenting Emile Zola with an engraved gold pen as token of appreciation for his defense of Dreyfus. They are planning on present Colonel Picquart, the War Minister who befriended Dreyfus and helped to prove his innocence with a gold loving cup..
1903: Birthdate of Al Hirschfeld, Tony Award winning cartoonist
1903(26th of Sivan, 5663): New York Banker Isidor Wormser passed away tonight in his home on Fifth Avenue. Born in Germany he came to the U.S. in at the age of 18 with his brother Simon with whom he sailed around Cape Horn to California where they prospered selling merchandize in the Gold Fields and later at their store in Sacramento. Isidor and Simon came to New York in 1870 where they established the banking firm of I & S Wormser which prospered for over 30 years thanks in part, to the conservative fiscal practices of brothers and to the probity of their business dealings. A member of the New York Stock Exchange and a Democratic Presidential elector in 1892, Wormser’s interest in civic affairs could be seen by his membership in the Metropolitan Museum and his service as a trustee of the Brooklyn Bridge.
1905: Birthdate of philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre. Towards the end of his life Sartre suffered what a critic called a “loss of historical hope.” Ironically, he turned to Judaism and Jewish history to find a source of hope and final philosophic underpinning. “Sartre dealt with his loss of historical hope by painfully acquiring another kind of hope. He replaced both existential dread and Marxist utopianism with a Jewish messianic patience. In the final interview with his friend and associate, the unlikely baal t'shuva, (returnee to Judaism), Benny Levy (formerly Pierre Victor), he reports his discovery that "the messianic idea is the base of the revolutionary idea." For many months before he died, Sartre studied Salo Baron's voluminous, magisterial work on Jewish history and, with Levy, came to a new-old view of the human prospect. As if he had invented Buber and the Bible, Sartre now proclaims, "We belong to a single family." Of course, "the unity of the human enterprise is yet to be created…what I have is yours and what you have is mine. If I need, you give to me. If you need, I give to you. That is the future of morality.” In the end, Sartre became a kind of "Jew." Already in the resistance of 1940-45, he had risked his life against Fascism. In Les Temps Modernes, at the very time of the Six Day War, he published what remains the most balanced and useful collection of essays on Arab Jewish peace and declared his solidarity with
Israel
. He did not accept the Nobel Prize of literature. But he did accept an honorary degree from the Hebrew University in 1976, reminding the Israelis how deeply he shared their dreams, and telling them that the more he cared about them, the more he cared also about the Palestinian people. "In order to understand the Jew from the interior, I would have to be a Jew," Sartre told Benny Levy and he tried hard enough to achieve that very goal. Studying Jewish history, like many thinkers before him, he caught a vision of the messianic hope: survival, obedience and loyalty to humanity itself. "The Jew lives. He has a destiny. The finality toward which every Jew moves is to reunite humanity....It is the end that only the Jewish people (knows)….It is the beginning of the existence of men for each other." In the last days and in the last words of Jean-Paul Sartre, we find a brother and a teacher in Israel.”
1907(10th of Av, 5667): Tish’a B’Av observed because the 9th of Av fell on Shabbat
1907(10th of Av, 5667): Isidior Wormser, the successful New York Banker who is the father-in-law of Jefferson Seligman, passed away today.
1915: Five day before his term in office was scheduled to end, John M. Slaton, Governor of Georgia commuted the sentence of Leo Frank from death to life in prison. The commutation came a day before Frank was scheduled to be hung. Slaton, who had been a popular governor, left Georgia with the mob and threat of violence baying at his heels. Tom Watson wrote an article calling for the lynching of Frank.
1922: Birthdate of comedic actress Judy Holliday.
1922: During a debate in Parliament, Lord Sydenham contends that the Arabs would not object to immigration if it were done by “well selected Jews” instead of by what describes as Zionist settlers who are” Bolsheviks,” “sinister and “promiscuous people.”
1922: Following a debate in the House of Lords on the questions of continued British commitment to honor the Balfour Declaration, 60 Lords voted against the declaration and only 29 voted for it.
1922: Major Herbert Young, “a senior official” in the Colonial Office writes Churchill that the vote against the Balfour Declaration in the House of Lords will lead to greater Arab obstinacy and imperil Britain’s previous promises to the Jews
1922: While meeting in London, the Prime Ministers of Canada, Newfoundland, Australia and New Zealand stated that they shared “Arab suspicions” of plans to ultimately create a Jewish majority in Palestine.
1922: In an address to the Dominion Prime Ministers Churchill described “The Zionist ideal as a very great idea” with which he had great personal sympathy. He further reminded them that the Balfour Declaration was more than an ideal. “It was an obligation made in wartime to enlist the aid of Jews all over the world and Britain must be very careful and punctilious to discharge its obligations.”
1926: Abbot Lawrence Lowell, the President of Harvard University was featured on the cover of Time magazine. Although the cover story did not mention it, 1926 was a year of triumph for Lowell because he convinced the Harvard Board of Overseers to adopt new admission requirements that accomplished his goal of reducing the number of Jews at Harvard. The year before these “non-academic” standards were added, 27% of the freshman class was Jewish. By the time Lowell in 7 years after the standards had been put in place Jews made up 10% of the underclassmen
1927: In New York, three Jewish interns at Kings County Hospital were attacked and tied up.
1928: Birthdate of Judith Raskin, one of
America
's greatest lyric sopranos of the twentieth century. She was not only famous for her voice but also for her acting. Judith Raskin died on
December 21, 1984
, after a long struggle with cancer. Services were held at the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue in
New York City
where she was eulogized as being one of the finest artists of our time who could be emulated by other future Jewish aspirants of the concert and opera stage.
1931: Birthdate of
Lawrence
K. Grossman, President of NBC-TV News.
1933: Birthdate of actor Bernie Kopell who played Doc on the ABC hit television show, The Love Boat
1933: A memorial meeting was held this evening at Beethoven Hall in New York City honoring Dr.Chaim Arlosoroff who had been murdered last Friday. It was attended by approximately 1,000 Jews and the leaders of various branches of the Zionist movement. In his speech, Morris Rothenberg, President of the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) made reference to reports that Revisionists had been connected with the murder and warned against any “rush to judgment” in determining who was responsible for the crime.
1934: Dr. Frederick B. Robinson, president of City College, and Dr. Bernard Revel, president of Yeshiva College, spoke at the third annual commencement exercises of Yeshiva College, to be held at 4 o'clock this afternoon in the college auditorium, 186th Street and Amsterdam Avenue.
1936(1st of Tammuz, 5696): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz
1936: The Palestine Post reported from
London
that the House of Commons held a full-dress debate on the
Palestine
crisis. There had been unanimity of views that stern measures should be taken to restore law and order in the country. Mr. Ormsby-Gore, the colonial secretary, expressed confidence in the High Commissioner, Sir Arthur Wauchope, but was conciliatory towards the Arabs.
1936: The New York Times published a review of Judaism in Transition by Mordecai M. Kaplan.
1936: An armed band of approximately 60 Arabs attacked a convoy of Jewish owned buses on route to Tel Aviv from Haifa. A British sergeant, Henry Sills, of the Seaforth Highlanders, was killed and three privates of the Royal Scottish Fusiliers were wounded in subsequent fights between the Arab terrorists and the British troops assigned to provide protection.
1938: In the first act of terrorism to take place in Tel Aviv, a bomb was thrown near a movie theatre seriously injuring a child.
1939: At the World’s Fair in New York, New Jersey Hadassah Day is celebrated with luncheons at the Café Tel Aviv and Toffenettti’s Restaurant while Dr. Albert Einstein and Rabbi Stephen Wise are the scheduled speakers at a luncheon for Rho Pi Phi Fraternity at the Café Tel Aviv.
1940:
France
surrendered to
Germany
, a move that would doom the Jews of France as well as Jews from across
Europe
who had sought refuge in
France
before the start of World War II.
1940: Prime Minister Winston Churchill “received a telegram from Lord Lothian, the British Ambassador in Washington, stating that the Jews in the United States ‘want Jews in Palestine to be organized under British command to defend Palestine from outside attack and to help the Allies.’ If Palestine were overrun (by the Nazis) and Jews had not been put in a position to defend their country, there would certainly be a most deplorable effect on American Jews’ opinion.’”
1942: At
Tirzt Zevi
,
Israel
, the temperature reached 129 degrees F (54 degrees C)
1943: Himmler ordered the destruction of all ghettos in
Russia
. .
1943(18th of Sivan, 5703): In Lvov, The Germans murdered most of the remaining ghetto population.
1943(18th of Sivan, 5703): All Jewish workers at municipal factories in Drogobych, Ukraine, are killed.
1943: German Professor August Hirt chooses 103 Jewish men and women at
Auschwitz
to be transported to the Natzweiler-Struthof camp near
Strasbourg
,
France
. There they are gassed. The soft tissues of their bodies are removed, and their skeletons are strung up as exhibits in the Reich Anatomical Institute of Strasbourg for the study of the Jewish race
1944: The British Foreign Office informs Prime Minister Churchill that ‘Marshall Tito (the Yugoslav Communist leading the partisans) has consented to facilitate the escape of Jewish refugees through his lines from
Hungary
with the idea that they should reach southern
Italy
, via
Dalmatia
.
1945: Guy Liddell, head of counter-espionage at MI5, kept during the 1940s and 50s dictated a diary entry to his secretary about a visit to his office by a British War Crimes Executive official, and representatives of MI6 and the Special Operations Executive, looking for evidence to support a war crimes prosecution in which he expressed his opinion that instead of formal war crime trials, any people found to have committed crimes should be arrested by the military and punished accordingly.
1948: The Rhodes Conference on the Israeli-Arab war opened.
Rhodes
is an island in the
Mediterranean
off the coast of
Greece
where the meetings were held. The negotiations were master-minded by Ralph Bunche. Bunche was an African-American diplomat who was a leader of the newly formed United Nations. The negotiations led to armistice agreements between the different Arab states and the state of
Israel
. Bunche earned the Nobel Prize for Peace as a reward for his efforts.
1950: “Rabbi Judah L. Maimon, Minister for Religious Affairs” stormed out of a cabinet meeting today, claiming that he was resigning from Ben Gurion’s government. Maimon was protesting the cuts to his department’s budget, the purchase of surplus meat from the United States that “does not conform to religious dietary laws” and what he claims are the failure of the government to enforce the strict observance of the laws of Kashrut in Israeli army kitchens.
1951: The Jerusalem Post reported that Iraq charged that Jews had stored arms and ammunition in Baghdad and put a stop to Jewish emigration, pending an investigation. But planes carrying enforce the strict observance of the laws of Kashrut in Israeli army kitchens.
1951: The Jerusalem Post reported that the Post Office planned to establish its own bank, under the new Postal Bank Law.
1951: The Jerusalem Post reported that at least 35 political parties put up candidates for the forthcoming Second Knesset elections. (This number was later reduced to 20.)
1956: Playwright Arthur Miller appeared before H.U.A.C. and refused to implicate anybody as having taken part in Communists activities
1964(11th of Tammuz, 5724): Three Civil Rights workers, Andrew Goodman, James Cheney and Mickey Schwermer were brutally murdered in Neshoba County, Mississippi by members of the Ku Klux Klan. Goodman and Schwermer were both Jewish. Cheney was an Afro-American. Goodman and Schwermer had come South as part of group who were determined to help Blacks register to vote. An all-white jury acquitted their killers, who included local law enforcement officials, of murder charges. They were later prosecuted in federal court and found guilty of having deprived the young trio of their civil rights. Goodman and Schwermer were part of a whole cadre of Jews who participated in the fight for equality for Blacks. This reality makes a sad counter-point to the anti-Semitic speeches of people like Al Sharpton and Louis Farrakhan.
1969: In response to Egyptian artillery attacks and other hostile acts, Israeli naval commandos attack and destroy the Egyptian radar facility at Ras El-Adabiya. The destruction of the radar complex left the Egyptians “blind” when Israeli jets attacked the artillery bases that had been firing on the Israelis.
1976:The Jerusalem Post reported that the American navy evacuated 300 foreigners from
Beirut
.
1976:The Jerusalem Post reported that a $15m. annual propaganda program, designed to swing the American public opinion away from
Israel
and toward the Arabs was reported in the
US
.
1977: Menachem Begin became the sixth Prime Minister of Israel. This marked a major shift in Israeli politics. The Labor-Zionists who had dominated the government since the start of the state were out and the Revisionists had gained power. This reversal in fortune had many causes including corruption in the Labor Party and shifting demographics in
Israel
.
1981(19th of Sivan, 5741): Isadore Blumenfeld a Jewish-American organized crime figure based in Minneapolis, Minnesota known as Kid Cann, passed away.
1985: Scientists reported that skeletal remains exhumed in
Brazil
were Dr. Josef Mengele, the Angel of Death at
Auschwitz
. Mengele escaped punishment after the war, thanks in no small part to support from his family in
Germany
.
1987(24th of Sivan, 5747): Abram Chasins “an American composer, pianist, piano teacher, lecturer, musicologist, music broadcaster, radio executive and author” passed away.
1998: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Cardozo by Andrew L. Kaufman
2003: The Martin Beck Theatre in New York was renamed the Al Hirschfeld Theatre.
2003(21st of Sivan, 5763): Novelist Leon Uris passed away. Uris first reached popular and critical acclaim with Battle Cry a novel about Marines fighting World War II. Coincidentally, Uris had served with the Marines. He hit the literary and financial jackpot with Exodus, a novel that depicted the birth of the state of
Israel
. He followed with other books with Jewish themes including Mila 18, QB
VII
, The Haj and Mitla Pass.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2003/jun/25/guardianobituaries.books
2003(21st of Sivan, 5763): Eighty-one year old screenwriter, playwright, producer and director George Axelrod, the son of non-Jewish screen star and a Russian Jew, passed away today. (As reported by Rick Lyman)
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/23/movies/george-axelrod-81-quirky-writer-for-stage-and-film-dies.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm
2004: Wrestler Matt Bloom tore a rotator cuff.
2004: Human rights activist Felice Gaer addressed the United Nations Conference on Anti-Semitism
2007(5th of Tammuz, 5767): Twenty-five year old Private First Class Daniel J. Agami, was killed by an improvised explosive device in Adhamiya, Iraq today. A native of Cleveland who grew up in Coral Springs, Florida, Agami came from a proud military and Jewish tradition. His grandfather served in the Korean War and