October 19, 2007
100 Years Ago in the forward
Joseph Steinberg, a Yiddish variety performer, lived happily with his wife in the couple’s South Brooklyn home. At least that’s what all the neighbors thought. As it turns out, Mrs. Steinberg isn’t Mrs. Steinberg at all; she is Mrs. Mandel. Although the couple lived as man and wife for at least a few years, it seems that Mrs. Steinberg is actually married to a man by the name of Rubin Mandel, who is suing Steinberg for the sum of $20,000 for having stolen his wife. Steinberg was also arrested and held on $1,000 bail on Mandel’s accusations. As of yet, no one has appeared to pay the actor’s bail.
75 Years Ago in the forward
Following an attack on supporters of Hitler by Jewish students and Socialists at the University of Vienna earlier this week, a group of young Nazis took revenge. Armed with sticks and knives, the Hitler supporters attacked groups of unarmed Jewish students at the university, leaving 25 students badly wounded. It was said that the sidewalks in front of the university ran red with blood. Posters accusing Jews of the medieval blood libel were also found on university grounds. The university’s rector, a professor whose last name is Abel, ordered the school closed — not because of the attack on Jewish students, but because Socialists had attacked supporters of Hitler earlier in the week. Perhaps exacerbating matters, Abel added that it was “natural” that the nationalist-oriented students would be upset about the attacks and that the university would remain closed until the government could guarantee that similar attacks would not take place in the future. The rector said nothing about punishing the hooligans who had attacked Jewish students.
50 Years Ago in the forward
Last week’s wonder and shock at the Soviets’ successful launching of space satellites was met in America by a number of calls for the government to shoot them down with a rocket. But the American government has stated that their satellites have long been ready for launching and that they already have the secret codes of the Soviet “Sputnik.” In a related matter, former U.S. attorney general Miles Lane announced that data on satellites was among the information passed to the Soviets by spies Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, who were executed for their crimes four years ago.
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