July 27, 2007
100 Years Ago in the Forward
Revolutionary Frume Frumkin was executed on the gallows this week after she was caught in a corridor in the Moscow Opera House with a machine pistol, lying in wait to assassinate a government official who was attending the opera. Frumkin, who had been jailed last year after it was discovered that she was part of a plot to kill a number of Russian government officials, escaped from her cell six months ago and reappeared only recently, in the hallway of the opera house. Her parents pleaded for clemency for their daughter, but their requests were not granted.
75 Years Ago In the Forward
Since we began serializing Israel Joshua Singer’s novel “Yoshe Kalb” in the Forward, we have received a mountain of mail asking all kinds of questions and offering all kinds of criticism. Most of the letters are full of unadorned praise: “This story is a masterpiece”; “‘Yoshe Kalb’ brings me true joy”; “This is the best that Yiddish literature has to offer”; “Completely authentic.” Not only are we finding that our regular readers are thrilled with “Yoshe Kalb,” but we also have received letters from some of Jewish culture’s most important figures, praising the work.
Frank Frankel, the Jewish mayor of the town of Long Beach, N.Y., just fired the town’s Jewish chief of police, Morris Grossman, on the accusation that he was permitting gambling on the boardwalk. Grossman complained that it was Frankel himself who gave out gambling permits and that even though he staged numerous raids against illegal houses of gambling, they simply pop up in new places after they’re closed down.
50 Years Ago In the Forward
Nikita Khrushchev, the communist boss of the Soviet Union, said in an interview with two dozen Americans that Israel’s politics are of aggression. When asked by one of the American guests whether it was true that Soviet Jews are permitted to leave the country, he replied: “It is true to a certain degree. We give passports to those we consider useful. Recently, we gave passports to Polish Jews so they can return to Poland. We know, however, that many of them go to Israel.”
A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.
If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
