Throwback Thursday: Queen Esther in New York City
Image by Forward Association
By Chana Pollack March 13, 2014
Welcome to Throwback Thursday, a weekly photo feature in which we sift 116 years of Forward history to find snapshots of women’s lives.
Image by Forward Association
Sonia Kanciper, a 22-year-old member of the Farband, the Labor Zionist organization and a post-graduate student at Hunter College, was chosen New York’s Queen Esther of 1952 in a beauty contest of representatives of colleges and Jewish youth groups in the metropolitan area. The contest was sponsored by the New York Committee for State of Israel Bonds. As a prize, Kanciper received a free trip to Israel that summer. Crowned March 17 in Madison Square Garden at a Purim Festival also sponsored by the local Israel bond committee, Kanciper received her tiara in front of 18,000 New Yorkers who attended the event. Film and stage stars Betty Field and Page Johnson crowned the new Jewish queen. It was a banner year for women’s participation in the bond drive; Hadassah Organization chapters alone raised over 7 million dollars through bond sales in 1952.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30
