December 28, 2007

100 Years Ago in the forward

Over the past few weeks, there has been a man, known in the press as “Jack the Ripper,” who has a penchant for cutting off pieces of women’s clothing on the Brooklyn-Manhattan subway line. This week, Samuel Buchbinder, a suspender maker from Brownsville, was riding the subway into work when two women accused him of cutting off pieces of their clothing. Before Buchbinder could say anything, a crowd of fellow passengers surrounded and nearly lynched him. Police, in fact, had to fight the mob in order to get a hold of him. When the police finally were able to search Buchbinder, they found no knife and no scissors. Buchbinder was arrested and held, but he doesn’t seem to be “the Ripper.”

75 Years Ago in the forward

It is currently estimated that, due to the current economic crisis, there are about a quarter-million homeless boys wandering around the country. Among them there are many Jewish boys, as well. But it’s not the nature of a Jewish boy to simply be a tramp and wander around the country aimlessly; he usually goes to friends or relatives who might be able to help him find a job. Plus, Jewish boys can never completely tear themselves away from their parents; they always write home. Whether they’re out West or wandering about New England, Jewish tramps always seem to know where they are going, and they always have a list of addresses where they can turn in whatever city they find themselves. If not, they go straight to the Young Men’s Hebrew Associations in the big cities they happen to be in. In many cases, tramps camp out in places they call “jungles.” But these are known to be dangerous, and so Jewish tramps tend to avoid them.

50 Years Ago in the forward

Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion handed in his resignation to President Yitzhak Ben-Zvi today. Unable to maintain a coalition in the Knesset, the veteran prime minister had little choice but to resign. Most responsible for his resignation were the left-wing parties, who refused to accede to Ben-Gurion’s demands over the Defense portfolio. In response, six Cabinet members from three different political parties demanded his resignation.

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