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Culture

October 14, 2005

100 YEARS AGO IN THE FORWARD

Five teenage boys, Isadore Klinger, Harold Shredder, Joseph Steinberg, Solomon Cossack and Salvatore Masse — all residents of the same Chrystie Street block on Manhattan’s Lower East Side — were arrested on the charge of running a “school” for young thieves. They were caught on the corner of Essex and Houston Streets teaching a “class” of younger boys from P.S. 18 the art of pickpocketing. According to police, in recent days a number of other thievery schools run on the Lower East Side have been busted.

75 YEARS AGO IN THE FORWARD

Clad in brown shirts, fascist mobs attacked the largest Jewish-owned department stores in Berlin, smashing windows, mirrors and furniture and driving out the customers from stores owned by the Wertheim and Greenwald families. A mob also smashed the windows of Dobrin’s Café and drove away all the customers in a panic. While the attacks took place, the mob screamed, “Long live Hitler!” The hooligans also battled with the police, who arrested about 50 of them. These fascist riots began during the opening of the Reichstag, where the 107 fascist deputies appeared in their brown shirts despite the illegality of doing so.

A policeman brought an elderly bag lady into Manhattan’s Centre Street Courthouse on the charge of begging. Dressed in rags and wearing shoes and socks that had holes throughout, Anna Katz appeared before Judge Murphy. He asked her if she had any means with which to support herself. Through a translator, Katz replied that she came to New York from Russia five years ago with her husband and her three children, all of whom are now dead. Since their deaths, she has been begging on the streets in order make a living. When asked if she had any money, Katz sheepishly handed over a wallet containing nearly $3,000.

50 YEARS AGO IN THE FORWARD

In an interview with the New York Post, Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser declared that his war is not only with the State of Israel but also with all the Jews. He said that there could be no compromise between Arabs and Jews. Nasser gave the interview with the paper despite being convinced that the American press, radio and television are controlled entirely by Jews. He added that because of this, the Arabs never can get a hearing in the press that is fair in comparison to that of Israel. Nasser also said that the entire Arab world is convinced that Zionists control the American government.

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