This Day, June 10, In Jewish History by Mitchell A. Levin

Posted: Saturday, June 9, 2012 7:45 pm
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Updated: 10:20 pm, Sat Jun 9, 2012.

This Day, June 10, In Jewish History by Mitchell A. Levin

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JUNE 10 In Jewish History

1190: During the Third Crusade Frederick I Barbarossa drowns in the Saleph River while leading an army to Jerusalem.  The German emperor was one of three monarchs leading the crusade.  The other two were Phillip Augustus of France and Richard the Lionhearted of England.  From the Jewish point of view, the untimely drowning was a great loss.  “For German Jewry, The Third Crusade could have raised havoc similar to the first.”  That it didn’t was a result of the foresight demonstrated by Frederick. “His timely order not to preach against the Jews, directed to monks and priests, helped, and his warnings to the Diet (Parliament) that anyone convicted of killing Jews would with his own life helped even more.  Local marshals dispersed surly mobs hovering around Jewish districts, and Frederick let it be known that anyone who inflicted injury on a Jew would have his hand chopped off.  At the emperor’s urging, bishops in his realm threatened people who attacked Jews with excommunication.  A Jewish chronicler, Ephraim ben-Jacob of Bonna, wrote, ‘Frederick defended us with all his might and enabled us to live among our enemies, so that no one harmed the Jews.’”

1539: Pope Paul III sends out letters to his Bishops calling for a delay in the start of the Council of Trent, which would turn out to be one of the major conclaves in the history of the Catholic Church.  Pope Paul III is the Pope who is credited with starting a series of tribunals that became known as the Roman Inquisition or, more simply, The Inquisition. While the Inquisition was aimed at a variety of non-believers, over the centuries Jews, Marranos and Conversos suffered disproportionately under this scourge.

1577: Pope Gregory XIII issued a warrant that “confirmed the statutes of the (Roman) Jewish community and permitted the collection of taxes.”

1624: During the Dutch War for Independence France and the Netherlands sign the Treaty of Compiegne which enabled France to supply the Dutch with financial aid in their fight to gain independence from Spain. Since Protestant Holland’s victory over Catholic Spain was in the best interest of the Jews since the former had provided a safe haven and the latter followed a ruinous policy of anti-Semitism.

1648: Start of the Cossacks ten year war with the Poles also known as the Chmielniki Uprising.  The Jews were caught between the Russian Orthodox Cossacks who hated the Roman Catholic Poles who had been occupying their land.  Jews had served as agents for the Polish nobles managing their lands and collecting the taxes.  For this, and the fact that they were Jews, the Cossack hated them.  At the same time, the Poles betrayed the Jews, in many instances turning them over to the Cossacks thinking that this would mollify the angry horde.  It didn’t but from the Jews’ point of view that really did not matter since they were killed regardless of what happened. In the ten tumultuous years that followed, over seven hundred Jewish communities were destroyed and between one hundred and five hundred thousand Jews lost their lives. The ensuing sense of helplessness contributed to the rise of the messianic movement which soon followed.

1729(13th of Sivan): Rabbi Abraham ben David Yizhaki, author of Zera Abraham passed away

1749 (7 Sivan 5509): Count Valentine Potocki is burned at the stake in Vilna. The count, along with his friend Zeremba, met an old Jew in a tavern and promised to convert if he could convince them of the preeminence of Judaism. Potoscki converted and eventually settled in Vilna. Zeremba hearing that his friend converted did likewise and moved to Eretz- Israel. His presence became known and he was put on trial for heresy when he refused to recant. His ashes were collected and buried in Vilna where the inscription on tomb read Abraham Ben Abraham Ger Zedek (a righteous proselyte). The Jews of Vilna would visit his grave and say Kaddish.

1760 (7 Sivan 5520): On the secular calendar, of Israel ben Eliezer passed away. Also known as the Baal Shem Tov he was the “founder” of the Chassidic Movement.  Born in 1700 in Lokop, Podolia and orphaned at a young age, he was raised by the Jewish community and spent much of his time alone in the nearby forests. After he married, he moved to the Carpathian Mountains and then to a small town where his wife set up an inn. At age thirty-six, he revealed himself to the community as a healer and a comforter. He received the name ‘Baal Shem Tov‘ (Master of the Good Name) and was simply called the ‘Besht’. His major philosophy consisted of worshipping G-d with joy and believing that simple prayers when uttered in earnest were more important that extreme intellectualization. The Besht believed that Tzaddikim, or righteous ones, were sent by G-d to guide the people. Though he left no writings of his own, he was immortalized by the often miraculous and magnified stories of his life as told by his closest followers.

1760:Canadian businessman and political leader, Aaron Hart, became a member of the St. Paul’s Lodge of Freemasons today “making him one of the first Jews in North America to become a Mason”

1827: Birthdate of Thomas W. Ferry, U.S. Senator from Michigan who would be the first President Pro Tempore of the United States Senate to attend the consecration of an orthodox synagogue in Washington, D.C.

1829: Birthdate of Filosseno Luzzatto “an Italian Jewish scholar” who was the son of Samuel David Luzzatto.

1837(7th of Sivan): Rabbi Chaim Isaac Mussafia of Jerusalm, author of Chaim va Chesed passed away

1846(16^th of Sivan, 5606): Heimann Joseph Michael, the native of Hamburg who became a leading Hebrew bibliographer of the first half of the 19^th century passed away. His impact outlived his death as can be seen by the fact that his seminal work Or ha-Hayyim which was edited by his son was published in Frankfort in 1891.

1852: In New York, a Jewish peddler was arrested today on charges of having stolen a watch valued at $30 from a resident of Newton.

1860: In New York, Congregation B’nai Israel purchased additional land on the corner of Stanton and Forsyth Streets on which they were building a sanctuary that was consecrated in August of the same year.

1870: The New York Times reported that the fact that Sir Moses Montefiore has verified reports of the massacre of Jews in Romania has discredited claims that these attacks did not take place.

1872: An article published today entitled “The Russian Jews” described a paper on the Jews of northwestern Russia that was presented at a recent meeting of the Russian Geographical Society held at St. Petersburg.  The author of the paper divides the Jews into a variety of groups and sub-groups.  According to him the Jews belong to two major groupings which differ in regard to “religion and language.”  One group believes in the Talmud and speaks a “corrupt German dialectic.”  The second group, called the Karaites, “rejects the Talmud, are not even absolute believers in the Bible… “have their own traditions which have collected into a book” that “has the same authority over them as the Talmud has over other Jews”  and speak a language that “is of Tartar Origin.  The author goes on to divide the first group into two subgroups – the Mitnagdim and the Chasidim who are called “Jumpers” by the Russians because they leap from the ground when praying – and describes the differences in their respective views and practices.  Finally, the Jews are broken down into Four Groups that include “the worldly Jews,” “the devout” Jews, “the Germans” who are followers of Moses Mendelsohn and the “Epicureans” who reject all forms of Jewish custom and ceremony as well as the Talmud.

1872: An article published today subtitled “The Romanian Jews and the Reichstag” reported that in May of this year  the German government has joined other European powers in responding to requests to help the Jews of Romania. The government announced that it could not interfere in the internal affairs of another country especially since none of those affected were German citizens. Germany reiterated the request of the other powers which had been made in February that persecution of the Jews stop.  The government also took credit for the release of some of the wrongfully convicted Jews. [Editor’s note- the issue of the treatment of Romania’s Jews is one that would agitate the European Powers and the United States during the last decades of the 19^th century.]

1872: An article published today subtitled “The Israelites of Prussia” reported that “the Jewish questions” (the treatment of the Jews of Romania) is of special interest in Berlin because “trade and banking is mainly in the hands of the elect people.”  “The financial heads of the dispersed nation have joined..to make their power felt to get the other nations to act against Romania. “A Committee of the Alliance Israelite Universelle has been formed” in Berlin “as a standing council of war” that would destroy the value of Romanian bonds. “That is a strong measure, but one for which the Jews have the power.” [Editor’s Note – The view of the Jew as “the other” who is part of an international financial concern would grow along with other European stereotypes: International Communist Conspirator and impoverished shiftless vermin.]

1872: An article published today sub-titled “Jewish University” reported that a Jewish university was opened at Berlin in May.  The Jewish community has been working on this project for several years and its opening is another example of the great strides made them in the Kaiser’s Empire.  The ceremony was attended only by Jewish officials but this should not be of any concern since there are plenty of Jews to attend the school.

1877: “A Jewish Suit For Divorce” published today described the adjudication of cause of action in Great Britain filed by an American Jew named Elias Isaacs naming his wife Deborah as respondent  and her lover, Bloc, as correspondent. The jury found that the respondent and co-respondent were guilty of damages but declined to assess damages because the petitioner had “conduced” (contributed to) his wife’s misconduct by separating from her for an extended period of time and not given her the protection one should expect in a marital relationship. [And  people think that Jews are dull and boring]

1877: An article published today entitled “The Place of Wailing” reported that the picture which Jerusalem presents that longest haunts the memory is perhaps the spectacle of the Jews wailing before the ancient wall of their city.  There in full sunlight, bowed in every attitude of grief, their faces set against those gigantic blocks which reveal…their antiquity, a group of 30 to 40 Jews are seen, perhaps a little too much as in an opera, by a long line of cold-faced Europeans.  The two groups are in startling contrast. Everything in the one speaks of the orderly life, the suppression of feel, the formality of vesture, a colorless insipidity, the outcome of our modern conventional existence; the other shows us figures, for the most part, which might stepped froth from the pages of the Bible, some of the heads of such grandeur that they might be the descendents of prophets; maidens whose contrite aspect reminds one of Ruth and Esther, surrender themselves to a sorrow which reverberates through the ages and is the one true bond which connect the grand days of old with the present.

1879: Today, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the point resolution reported by the Committee on Foreign Affairs in relation to treaty negotiations with Russia as to American Israelites.

1880: Oliver Hazard Perry Belmont graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy.  Belmont was the son of August Belmont the Hessian Jew who came to the United States as a representative of the Rothschilds and built a fortune of his own.  The naval career might have seemed strange for the son of a Jews. But, his maternal grandfather Commodore Mathew Perry who commanded the naval expedition that opened trade with Japan and a maternal grand-uncle was Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, the hero of the War of 1812.

1880(1st of Tammuz, 5640: Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

1886(7^th of Sivan, 5646): Second Day of Shavuot

1886: For the second day in a row, final exams are scheduled to be given on Shavuot at Philadelphia’s Central High School despite the requests of the city’s rabbis to make other arrangements.

1898: The Jewish Chronicle carried a vivid account of an anti-Jewish riot in Jassy, Romania — a place that the paper decided was no longer safe for Jews

1901:  Birthdate of Austrian-born American composer, Frederic Lowe.  Lowe teamed with Alan Jay Lerner to create such hits as Brigadoon, Paint Your Wagon and My Fair Lady.

1907: The parents of Riva (Rebecca) Hillesum-Bernstein who would be the maternal grandparents of Riva (Rebecca) Hillesum-Bernstein arrived in Amsterdam where they were re-united with their daughter and son.

1908: Oliver Hazard Perry Belmont, the son of August Belmont, who inherited a fortune large enough when his father died to marry a Vanderbilt.  In an era of matrilineal Judaism, Belmont was not Jewish and he certainly was not considered to be one as he moved through the high society of his time. But he was August’s son and the enemies of August never let anybody forget about his Jewish antecedents.

1909: First day of a two day conference held in New York that would create the youth organization known as Young Judaea.

1910: Gustave Bauer, a banker from Madrid was elected, to the Spanish Parliament as the deputy for Corogna. He was the first Jew elected to public office since the expulsion in 1492.

1911: Birthdate of Hans Herzl, son of Theodor Herzl.

1915: Birthdate of author Saul Bellow.  Bellow won both the Pulitzer and the Nobel prizes. Among his more famous works are Herzog and Humboldt’s Gift.

1916: Birthdate of William Rosenberg, founder of Dunkin Donuts.  Rosenberg opened his first Dunkin Donut shop in his native New England in 1950.  Not only was he a pioneer in this particular food genre, he was a pioneer in the franchise industry.  Rosenberg was an equine enthusiast and philanthropist.  By the time he died at the age of 86 he had given millions to several causes including Harvard Medical School where a chair was endowed in his honor.

1917: A column styled “Latest Publication” published today reported that copies of “The Russian Revolution” by Issac Don Levine and the “The Holy Scriptures,” a new English translation published by the Jewish Pubication Society were available in New York City.

1917: In the United States, three hundred and thirty-five thousand people chose representatives for the first American Jewish Congress. The Congress would meet for the first time in 1918 under the leadership of Rabbi Stephen Wise. Founded to ameliorate the suffering from WW I, the Congress became an advocate for civil rights and civil liberties as well as seeing to it that the Jewish point of view was taken into consideration on the national political scene.  The organization is a staunch defender of the doctrine of separation of church and state and an ardent advocate for the state of Israel.

1923: Birthdate of Slovokian-born British media mogul Ian Robert Maxwell.

1925: Birthdate of Nat Hentoff

1926: Socialist Congressman and champion of the underdog Meyer London was buried today at Mt. Carmel Cemetery in Queens following a funeral that included a procession of 50,000 mourners and half a million on-lookers.  London may have the distinction of being the only Socialist who was condemned as an anti-American radical to have a United States naval vessel named in his honor. The U.S.S. Meyer London, one the famed fleet of Liberty ships, was launched in 1943 and was sunk by an enemy torpedo off the coast of Libya in 1944.

1928: In Philadelphia, Betty and Rabbi Simon Greenberg, the future vice chancellor of JTS gave birth to Moshe Greenberg, “one of the most influential Jewish biblical scholars of the 20th century.”

1928: Birthdate of Maurice Sendak, author of Where the Wild Things Are.

1932: In Brooklyn, Morris and Evelyn (Bayer) Ginsburg gave birth to Martin David Ginsberg Georgetown University Law Professor and famed tax attorney.

1932(6th of Sivan, 5692): First Day of Shavuot

1933: President Roosevelt submitted the name of Dr. William E. Dodd to serve as Ambassador to Germany and the Senate voted to confirm the nomination.  Dodd served with distinction, but much to his dismay was unable to convince the State Department and others of the dangers presented by the rise of the Nazis.

1933: Joe T. Robinson of Arkansas, the Democratic majority leader, gave a speech on the floor the U.S. Senate strongly condemning the persecution of the Jews in Germany.  He described what was going on in Germany as “sickening and terrifying.”  As the Senate’s leading Democrat, Senator Robinson often serves as the unofficial spokesman for the administration.  Jesse Metcalf, the Republican Senator from Rhode Island joined in the condemnation saying that “a violation of religious freedom in any part of the world is a blow at” American ideals. Senator Robert Wagner of New York expressed his “horror at the resorts of inteolerance, discrimination and violence.”  Wagner’s condemnation carried additional weight since he was born in Germany and grew up there.Senator Royal Copeland spoke approvingly of Jews as a group, endorsed the comments of Senator Robinson but expressed the view that the German people were not responsible but rather they were “under a power over which they have no control.” [An early version of “the Germans are not Nazis” argument]

1934(27th of Sivan, 5694): Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky passed away. He “was a Soviet developmental psychologist whose work received widespread recognition in the Western world around the 1960s. According to Vygotsky, the intellectual development of children is a function of human communities, rather than of individuals.”

1936: The Palestine Post reported that two Arabs died and 26 Arabs and Armenians were injured by a bomb which exploded inside the Jaffa Gate on June 8.

1936: The Palestine Post reported that Mr. Ormsby Gore, the colonial secretary, told the House of Commons in London that the Palestine government was taking all possible action to protect life, property and communications in the country. The Palestine government was granted further emergency powers under the Palestine (Defense) Order in Council of 1931.

1936: “Five Arabs were seriously wounded today in as part of a round of disorder such as have become typical of the Arab anti-Jewish campaign In Palestine.”  As the Arab uprising continued, “Jerusalem was again cut off from the rest of Palestine and the world in general when telephone and telegraph lines were severed” supposedly by Arab vandals.

1940: As the Nazi Blitz of the Low Countries and France was reaching a successful climax Italy under Mussolini, entered World War II on the side of the Germans. Italy’s attack on France was described by Churchill as the hand that has held the dagger has now struck it in the back. This move by Mussolini would ultimately imperil the Italian Jewish Community, resulting in deportation and death later in the war.

1940: The French government departed Paris as the German armies swept forward.  Soon an Armistice would be signed dividing control of France between Nazi occupation and the pro-Nazi Vichy Government.  Jews would be at peril in both places.

1940: As two million Parisians flee the City of Light, Hans and Margaret Rey find themselves trapped in a city that the French government has declared “an open city.”  This declaration means that unlike Warsaw, London, etc. Paris will be the one major city not bombed by the Nazis. This marks the beginning of strangely cordial relationship between the Nazis and the French which bodes ill for the Jews trapped in France including Hans Rey, the creator of Curious George and his wife Margaret.

1942: Today, during the siege of Bir Hakeim, part of the battle being fought against Rommel in North Africa, the British campaign headquarters of the British 8th Army issued an order to retreat. By then The Jewish Company, a volunteer unit that had consisted of 400 men at the start of the fight, had lost 75% of its men as they fought to delay Rommel’s offensive for 10 days.

1942: Thousands of Jews were sent from Prague to ‘an unknown destination in the East’ in cattle cars. The destination was Belzec, the site of their murder. The Jews of Biala Podlaska were sent to Sobibor.

1943: Birthdate of television news personality Jeff Greenfield.

1943(7^thof Shavuot, 5703): Second Day of Shavuot

1944(19th of Sivan, 5704): In the French village of Oradour-sur-Glane, Germans kill 642 residents as revenge for the killing of an SS officer by a Resistance sniper. Women and children are burned alive in a church and the men are machine-gunned. Of the 642 victims, seven are Jewish refugees who had escaped deportation to Auschwitz by living with sympathetic Oradour-sur-Glane villagers. Included among the dead is eight-year-old Serge Bergman.

1944: Reszoe (Rudolf) Kasztner, head of the Aid and Rescue Committee known as Va’adah chose “388 members of his own extended family, as well as groups of family friends” to serve as a selected groups of Jews that will be allowed to leave Hungary as a token of German “good faith” during the negotiations with Eichmann and Himmler that are being conducted by Joel Brand.

1948: Syrian forces over-ran Mishmar Ha-Yarden a Jewish settlement on the west bank of the Jordan River.  The Syrians had every advantage including control of the air, tanks and a full array of artillery.  Realizing the desperate nature of their situation, the Jewish settlers sent the women and children away.  The few surviving defenders were taken to Damascus.  The Syrians called the victory Faith-Allah (the Capture of God).  After the war, the Jews rebuilt Mishmar Ha-Yarden a mile from the original kibbutz.  The ruins of the original settlement were left as a memorial to those who fought and fell in the fight to create a Jewish home. This was one of the last military actions before the first truce between the Israelis and the Arabs which was slated to start on June 11.

1959: In the Bronx Anne (née Goldhaber), an English literature professor, and Bernard Spitzer, a real estate mogul gave birth to Eliot Spitzer New York State’s Attorney General, Governor and talking television head for cable news.

1960(15th of Sivan, 5720): Charles Joseph Singer, distinguished “British historian of science, technology and medicine passed away.  He was the son of Simeon Singer, the Rabbi of London’s West End Synagogue who translated the Authorized Daily Prayer Book into English. He was the husband of Dorothea Waley Cohen, who in a manner unusual for her time was a leading historian of the Medieval Period.  There is no way that this blog can do justice to Singer’s long and distinguished career.

1962: Birthdate of actress Gina Gershwin

1966: Birthdate of Gina Bellman, “a New Zealand-born British actress.”

1967: As of today, Syria had lost approximately 100 combat aircraft.

1967: At 6:30 p.m. a cease-fire went into effect on the Golan Heights effectively ending the Six Day War. There was no Arab military force that could have kept the Israelis from taking Cairo, Damascus or Amman. But as Yitzchak Rabin pointed out, the Israelis had not gone to war to cease territory. They had gone to war only after all diplomatic efforts had failed and they were faced with the choice of fighting or facing extinction. In a week’s time they had changed the map of the Middle East. The forces facing them were not “tin men.” Contrary to some of the comments made by the ill informed, the Arabs had fought hard and the IDF had suffered the casualties to prove it. The fact was that in a week Israel had gone from a nation with a noose around its neck to being victors who had reclaimed Jerusalem, seized the Golan Heights from which the Syrians had shelled Israeli farmers for almost two decades and occupied a swath of land from the Jordan River to the Suez Canal. In the weeks prior to the war, Israel had been subjected to constant shelling from the Golan Heights and blockading by Egypt of the Straits of Tiran (Israel’s only southern sea outlet). Once the UN observer forces left the Sinai at Egypt’s behest the stage was set for war. Within a few days, the entire Sinai was in Israel’s hands, and despite being warned not to interfere, Jordan shelled Jerusalem opening that front as well. This battle led to the capture of the West Bank and the unification of Jerusalem. On the Syrian front, Israel succeeded in pushing the Syrians back to Kunetra and taking part of the Hermon range. In fewer then six days, Israel had routed all three of its neighbors losing over 700 men and having over 2,500 wounded. More than 400 Arab planes and 500 tanks were destroyed. The UN Security Council rejected a Soviet call for an unconditional pullback to the “green line“.

1976: The Jerusalem Post reported that the Knesset approved the Ben-Gurion Memorial Bill on its first reading. The memorial covered Ben-Gurion’s home in Tel Aviv, the Institute for the Legacy of Ben-Gurion at Kibbutz Sde Boker and the Desert Institute in the Negev. There was a threat that Egged buses would grind to a halt as the cooperative was unable to pay its fuel suppliers to whom it owed IL 4m., in addition to millions it owed to suppliers of other equipment. The Ministry of Transport insisted that if the cooperative wished to obtain the IL 200m.government-guaranteed loan, it would have to deduct IL 300 per month from its members’ salaries. But following the ministry’s order to carry soldiers free, Egged reneged on this agreement.

1976(12th of Sivan, 5736): Adolph Zukor, founder of Paramount Studios and one Hollywood’s early movie moguls passed away at the age of 103.

1982: Units of the Golani Brigad and the Barak Armored Brigade finished the fighting that resulted in the capture of two villages on the outskirts of Beiruit.

1994(1st of Tamuz, 5754): Rosh Chodesh Tamuz

1999: In Baltimore, Maryland, Anshe-Emunah-Aitz Chaim-Tifereth Israel voted to merge with Moses Montifore Emunath Israel-Woodmoor Hebrew Congregation.

2000(7th of Sivan, 5760): Second Day of Shavuot

2001: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Skeptical Music: Essays on Modern Poetry by David Bromwich and Dance with Demons: The Life of Jerome Robbins by Greg Lawrence.

2002: President Bush welcomed Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to the White House.

2004: Ambassador Earle I. Mack presented his credentials to the President of Finland, Tarja Halonen. Ambassador Mack has a long history associated with business, the arts, public service, and education. He received his Bachelor of Science from Drexel University and was honored being selected from 65,000 candidates as one of 100 outstanding alumni among the “Drexel 100″, and he attended Fordham School of Law. He holds an honorary degree in Doctor of Humane Letters from Yeshiva University. From 1992-2004, he served as Chairman of the Board of the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law where presently he is Chairman Emeritus.

2004:Effi Eitamand Yitzhak Levy quit the government to protest the plan to leave Gaza.

2004: Tzipi Livini succeeded Effit Eitam as Minister of Housing and Construction.

2006:  Bat Mitzvah of Gail Barnum, daughter of Amy and Joel Barnum.

2007: At Temple Judah, In Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Dr. Howard Lenhoff describes a real and modern exodus–the rescue of Ethiopian Jews and their deliverance to Israel. Dr. Lenhoff, a graduate of Coe College and a distinguished biologist at the University of California (Irvine), was instrumental in this rescue. He is the author of author of, Black Jews, Jews, and Other Heroes. How Grassroots Activism Led to the Rescue of the Ethiopian Jews

2007: Annual Temple Judah Congregational Meeting in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

2007: The Sunday New York Times book section featured a review of Sylvia and The Collected Stories two works by the late Jewish author Leonard Michaels.

2007: Norman Finkelstein, who gained famed for his controversial comments about the Holocaust, has been denied tenure by De Paul University

2007: The Sunday Washington Post book section featured a review of 1967: Israel, the War and the Year That Transformed the Middle East by Tom Segev.

2007:  The Sunday Chicago Tribune featured an article entitled “Facing a grim reality in Austrian Town” which tells of how beneath the quiet homes and neat hedges of Gusen, lie the remains of a Nazi concentration camp. Ironically, Mauthausen is only four miles away and it is preserved as a monument the victims of the Holocaust.  At Gusen, the citizens actually live in buildings left from the camp.  Christopher Mayer, a 32 year old artist has designed an audio tour for visitors  to hear the recollections of survivors. www.chicagotribune.com/nazicamp

2007: Today, the Great Synagogue’s emeritus Rabbi, Raymond Apple, was confirmed as the keynote speaker for the International Council of Christians and Jews’ (ICCJ’s) 2007 conference in Sydney to be held in July.

2007: Ronald Lauder was elected President of the World Jewish Congress today defeating the South African businessman Mendel Kaplan and Einat Wilf of Israel

2008(7th of Sivan, 5768): Second Day Shavuot

2008: Ninety percent of the Israeli public thinks that the country is tainted with corruption and over half say that corruptibility is a necessary to prerequisite to success in the political sphere, according to the Israeli Democracy Institute’s (IDI) annual Democracy Index which was submitted to President Shimon Peres.

2009: Simon Schama, a professor of art history at Columbia University and a cultural critic for the New Yorker magazine, discusses and signs his new book, The American Future: A History at Politics and Prose in Washington, D.C.

2009: The Hebrew Book Fair opens at Rabin Square in Tel Aviv.As part of the Book Fair events, the Centennial Year Administration will launch 4 new books dedicated to Tel Aviv – Yafo. These four volumes, selected from 50 candidates include: A Crane Points to the Sea – A poetry book by Gilad Cahane, The Sarona Templar Colony at Times of Struggle by Nir Mann, A City with a Concept: 100 Years of Urban Planning in Tel Aviv by Natty Marom and The Lost Children: Mandatory Tel Aviv’s Back Yard by Dr. Tami Razi

2009: The RSX European Open Windsurfing Championship begins at Tel Aviv’s Gordon Beach.

2009: Ken “Feinberg was appointed by the U.S. Treasury Department to oversee the compensation of top executives at companies which have received federal bailout assistance.”

2009: An American white supremacist opened fire at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum today killing a security guard before being shot himself, according to initial reports. The shooter was named as James Von Brunn by a law enforcement official, pending confirmation and speaking on condition of anonymity, who noted that his car had been found near the museum. Both Von Brunn and the unnamed security officer were rushed to hospital following the shootout, which took place at midday. Von Brunn was described by officials as in “grave condition.” A Washington Fire Department spokesman said that a third person had been lightly wounded in the exchange, in which two officers fired back at the assailant. Following the attack, President Barack Obama reacted with shock, saying that the act demonstrated the need to fight anti-Semitism. “I am shocked and saddened by today’s shooting at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum,” he said in a statement. “This outrageous act reminds us that we must remain vigilant against anti-Semitism and prejudice in all its forms. No American institution is more important to this effort than the Holocaust Museum, and no act of violence will diminish our determination to honor those who were lost by building a more peaceful and tolerant world. “Today, we have lost a courageous security guard who stood watch at this place of solemn remembrance,” the statement continued. “My thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends in this painful time.” Bystanders described a scene of fear and chaos as they heard security officers yell at hundreds of students, tourists and museum staff to flee the premises. Public safety officers then secured the perimeter and cut off vehicles from the site. FBI agents are helping with the investigation, as authorities said they were checking for possible terror connections. Washington Police Chief Kathy Lanier said the police had received no information or threats that such an attack was in the offing. She refused to confirm that Von Brunn was the lead suspect during a press conference following the shooting. Von Brunn is a well-known white supremacist, Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center told CNN, referring to a Web site and publications he produced over several years in which he has “raged” against Jews and blacks. He noted that Von Brunn had been arrested in the past in connection to hate crimes. But some of the witnesses to today’s shooting said they didn’t believe the shooter to be elderly, though Von Brunn is in his late 80s. However, they also noted that they found themselves amid chaos and confusion as museum-goers tried to figure out what to do. “People were running as fast as they could… People were on the floor,” said 19-year-old Maria Hernandez, who heard the shots and saw blood covering the ground. “It was just chaos everywhere.” She also heard this “very angry yell” coming from the perpetrator, while the guards were telling him to drop his weapon and get down on the floor. Karen Unruh, who was waiting in line with her two grandsons when the shooting started, heard a “bang, bang, bang” and worried that they would be the next victims, so “we just hit the floor.” Standing among the throng of reporters and curious tourists outside the museum following the attack, she expressed shock at what happened. “I just can’t believe this is happening to us in America.” Ora Mois, who was visiting Washington from Kfar Saba, also couldn’t believe that she found herself amid such violence in the US. “In Israel, we’ve gotten used to this, but here? It’s the American dream, to come here, to travel, but not like this.” But her brother Moti Shair said he wasn’t surprised. “People are looking for Jews, wherever they are, to make a point,” he said. “It’s terrible. It reminds me of some sad memories from the past. They’re still looking for Jewish targets.” Several Jewish and Israel groups expressed alarm at the news. “We are shocked and saddened by today’s shooting incident at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington. The Embassy of Israel condemns this attack and is closely following the situation,” the embassy said in a statement. Strategic Affairs Minister Moshe Ya’alon, who was concluding a two-day visit to Washington, was not believed to be in the area, as a visit to the museum was not on his itinerary. The Holocaust Museum also put out a statement emphasizing its concern for the injured security officer, before he passed away. “Our thoughts and prayers go out to the officer and his family,” it read. The statement indicated the facility was expected to reopen Thursday. US President Barack Obama was saddened by the shooting at the museum, which is near the White House, a spokesman said. In Jerusalem, Diaspora Affairs Minister Yuli Edelstein said, “This evening’s incident is, regrettably, yet another proof that anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial are still alive and well. Israel must fight these phenomena in the domestic arena, in the international arena, in the legal arena, in academia and in the media, and must demand that the rest of the world say ‘No!’ to incidents such as this.” The Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial expressed shock at the “appalling” shooting attack on the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington. Yad Vashem spokeswoman Iris Rosenberg said in a statement that “the museum, in addition to being a memorial to the victims of the Holocaust, is dedicated to educating against this kind of hate. His target makes this shooting that much more heinous.” Yad Vashem Chairman Avner Shalev spoke to the Washington museum’s Director Sara Bloomfield to express support, and deep empathy, to her and all the museum staff. The shooting was also condemned by the chief Nazi hunter of the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center. “On many levels it is a very symbolic target, and it is not surprising that someone who espouses White supremacy would want to attack an institution like that, since Holocaust museums are the antithesis of this person’s racist ideology and anti-Semitism,” said Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the organization’s Israel director. He noted that the fact that the suspected shooter is 89 years old reinforces the organization’s view that in terms of bringing Nazi war criminals to justice, age is not an issue. He added that the Wiesenthal Center in California has been the target of threats and violence, as well as actual property destruction.

2010: Grammy Award-winners Susan McKeown and Lorin Sklamberg  are scheduled to present Saints Tzadiks, a project celebrating Yiddish and Irish song at the Washington Jewish Music Festival.

2010: Inbal Pinto and Avshalom Pollak Dance Company is scheduled to perform “Oyster at Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston, South Carolina.

2010: Israeli writer and peace activist David Grossman has been named winner of the 2010 Peace Prize by the German association of publishers and booksellers.Grossman, 56, is author of The Yellow Wind, a non-fiction work that examined the lives of the Palestinians, and To the End of the Land, a novel that examines the cost of war.The association said it chose to honour Grossman because is “one of Israel’s foremost authors and an active supporter of reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians.”"[His] books illustrate the extent to which we can only end the cycle of violence, hatred and displacement in the Middle East by means of listening, restraint and the power of words,” it said in a statement today. Grossman will receive the prize, which includes 25,000 euros ($31,300 Cdn), on Oct. 10 during a ceremony at the Frankfurt Book Fair. Past winners include Orhan Pamuk, Susan Sontag, Amos Oz, Vaclav Havel and Octavio Paz. Grossman was born in Jerusalem and worked as a radio actor and correspondent for Israel’s national broadcaster. His books, The Yellow Wind and Death as A Way of Life, were criticized within Israel and praised abroad for their portrait of Palestinian-Israeli relations. He also wrote See Under: Love about the children of Holocaust survivors.

2011: The CSI Milwaukee Directors Seminar sponsored by the Coalition for Jewish Learning is scheduled to take place at the CJL in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. “The Coalition for Jewish Learning (CJL), the education program of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation, promotes and advances Jewish education in the greater Milwaukee community, provides a support system for the community’s institutions of Jewish learning, and forges coalitions to ensure excellence in Jewish education.”

2011: An award winning solo piece by Israeli based Idan Cohen – “My Sweet Little Fur” is scheduled to be performed by Ran Ben-Dror on the third night of Contemporary Israeli Dance Week.

2011: Police entered a sensitive Jerusalem holy site to disperse Palestinian protesters who were hurling stones today. The scene of today’s violence was the Old City compound known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said police entered the compound after Palestinians began lobbing stones at security forces stationed outside one of the gates. He says police used stun grenades to disperse the crowd. Rosenfeld says no one was injured and that order was quickly restored.

2011(8^th of Sivan, 5771): Eighty-five year old Norman Redlich, a leading member of the New York bar and the Dean of New York University Law School passed away.  (As reported by Paul Vitello)

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/11/education/11redlich.html?_r=1

2011(8^th of Sivan, 5771): Adolph William (“Al”) Schwimmer, founder of Israel Aircraft Industries and winner of the Israel Prize died today at Tel Hashomer hospital on his 94th birthday. Schwimmer, an American citizen born in New York, was convicted in 1950 of violating the Neutrality Act for smuggling planes to Israel during the 1948 War of Independence. He was stripped of his civil rights, but not imprisoned. The American Jew was able to covertly bring the aircrafts to Israel by establishing false companies, one of which was purportedly the official airline of Panama. Schwimmer was in the Air Transport Command in World War II, providing him with many contacts that were pilots and in the airplane industry. He was able to use his contacts to transport the planes to Israel. Schwimmer was pardoned in 2001 by then outgoing U.S. President Bill Clinton. The pardon was awarded without any formal request from Schwimmer. In an interview with the Jerusalem Report in 2001, Schwimmer said he never applied for a pardon, calling it is a “complicated process”. The expatriate added that “you have to express regret for what you did, and I didn’t feel that way.” However, the eldest son of Hank Greenspun, a close friend of Schwimmer’s who worked with him when he was smuggling arms into Israel during the Independence War, is an attorney and a friend of Clinton. The younger Greenspun sent all the paperwork to the Justice Department and told Schwimmer, “I’m not asking you. I’m telling you, I sent in your application for a pardon.” After the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, Schwimmer joined the nascent Israel Air Force, after which he established an aircraft company that evolved to become the Israel Aircraft Industries during the 50′s. Schwimmer ran the aircraft company for over 20 years, during which he became close with current President Shimon Peres. After disagreements with former Defense Ministers Moshe Dayan and Ezer Weizman, Schwimmer left Israel Aircradt Industries, becoming a “special adviser” for the Israeli government for which he was paid a symbolic one shekel a year. Schwimmer was awarded the Israel Prize for his contributions to Israeli society in 2006.

2011: Congressman Anthony Weiner acknowledged he had exchanged at least five private messages on Twitter with a 17-year-old Delaware girl, but indicated that the messages were “neither explicit nor indecent.”  

  2012: 45^th anniversary of the end of the “Six Days War.”  The Jews of the world gave a collective sigh of relief.  David had defeated a really big Goliath.  On June 5 when the war started the deck was stacked against Israel’s survival.  Not only were they facing an Arab alliance with a massive military advantage, they were, in effect, facing the Soviets who were dedicated to the victory of their Moslem client states.  When the first reports of Arab claims about having inflicted  heavy losses on the Israelis, people were really scared.  Remember, this was in the days before the internet, etc. so communication from the battlefield was a dicey thing at best.  By the time the war was over, there were plenty of American Jews who had been ambivalent about Israel who know took great pride in the Jewish state and became active supporters.  Despite what the revisionists might write today, that victory not only saved Israel, it created a whole new positive feeling that many Jews (and non-Jews) had about being Jewish. 

 2012: As Temple Judah continues to celebrate the 90^thanniversary of its founding The co-presidents of the congregation are scheduled to cook BBQ before tonight’s annual congregational meeting. 

2012: David Broza is scheduled to perform at Israeli-American Night part of the Music Under the Stars program at Eisenhower Park.

2012: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including A Difficult Woman: The Challenging Life and Times of Lillian Hellman by Alice Kessler-Harris

2012: Greater Chicago Jewish Festival is scheduled to take place at St. Paul Woods in Morton Grove, Il

http://pocet.org/

Copyright; June, 2012; Mitchell A. Levin  melech3@mchsi.com

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Saturday, June 9, 2012 7:45 pm.

Updated: 10:20 pm.