October 26, 2007
100 Years Ago in the forward
The parents of 17-year-old Ida Milner were worried sick after their daughter disappeared from their home in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn more than six weeks ago. They reported the missing girl to the police and mentioned the name Abraham Krimko as her current boyfriend, but nothing turned up. This week, however, the girl was arrested for soliciting on the Williamsburg Bridge. Oddly enough, Krimko had been arrested a few hours before Milner, and he admitted to the police that he was a pimp. He swore he hadn’t seen Milner for a week, although it turned out the two were living together. Both Krimko and Milner are being held while an investigation takes place.
75 Years Ago in the forward
A court in Buenos Aires has freed 134 members of the Zvi Migdal Society, a group alleged to be active in the international white slave trade. Arrests of the group began in 1929 as part of a campaign to stop trafficking in young women who were often tricked into becoming prostitutes and then forced to remain. The Zvi Migdal Society, which is alleged to have more than 400 members, specialized in importing Jewish women to North and South America from Eastern Europe to work as prostitutes. The trial, during which witnesses proved without a shadow of a doubt that the members of Zvi Migdal were involved in the white slave trade, is considered to have been a failure, since only two members of the group were convicted. Worse yet, they were convicted of “corruption,” not for involvement in the prostitution of women. In its decision, the court said that it was unable to declare the Zvi Migdal Society an illegal organization, since it had real estate, a legal charter of long standing and even its own burial area in the Buenos Aires Jewish cemetery.
50 Years Ago in the forward
It is being reported that New York’s Jewish cemeteries are almost full. According to Charles Kramer, the attorney representing the area’s 24 biggest Jewish cemeteries, there are 600 acres of land comprising Jewish burial grounds, with only 48 acres free. Some 900 graves can fit in one acre, which means there is currently enough space for about 50,000 burials. The number of New York Jews who die each year is about 20,000, which means that within less than three years, there will be no more space in the city’s cemeteries. As a result, more and more Jews can expect to find their final resting places on Long Island and in New Jersey.
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