November 9, 2007
100 Years Ago In the Forward
A heartbreaking letter written by a boy in Antwerp was brought into the offices of the Forward. Apparently, the boy, an emigrant from Eastern Europe, was left alone in Antwerp. His parents are somewhere in New York, but as of yet they have not been found. In part, the letter reads: “Everyone asks if I’m an orphan, since no parent would abandon their child without even a penny. I was left in Antwerp, I didn’t know to whom to turn. I stood on the street and cried. From that time on, I’ve just wandered about. I spend my days in the street and sleep in the street. I don’t know what to do. Sometimes, I just want to throw myself into the sea.”
75 Years Ago In the Forward
Five hundred religious Jews held a march through the streets of Manhattan’s Lower East Side in protest of the open desecration of the Sabbath, which occurs every week. Organized by members of Agudah, the marchers wound their way up Canal Street to Orchard Street, where they cursed the storekeepers and pushcart peddlers for working on the Sabbath. Screaming “Shame on you, Shabbos goyim,” the marchers encountered a few scuffles from the peddlers. From there, they continued through the rest of the major streets of the neighborhood as police looked on, smiling.
This week’s elections were good to the Jews: Five states, including New York, Illinois, Florida, New Mexico and Oregon, elected Jewish governors. Herbert Lehman was elected in New York, Henry Horner in Illinois, Dave Sholtz in Florida, Arthur Seligman in New Mexico and Julius Meier in Oregon. For nearly all the newly elected governors, it is the first time that a Jew has been elected to the highest office of that state.
50 Years Ago In the Forward
The Moroccan Interior Ministry has announced that over the past two months, more than 5,000 Jews have emigrated from Morocco. This was surprising to some, since it had been reported previously that Jewish emigration from Morocco had stopped. It is estimated that slightly more than 200,000 Jews live in Morocco among about 9 million Muslims. Although most of the 5,000 Jews who have recently left Morocco signed documents indicating that their destination was France, Spain or Portugal, it is well known that the vast majority of them are destined for Israel.
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