June 11, 2010
100 Years Ago in the Forward
There was chaos this week at the fifth convention of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union after the event’s chairman, a Mr. Deutsch, refused to allow delegates to give their reports in Yiddish. A number of the delegates informed Deutsch that their reports had been written in Yiddish and that they didn’t know enough English to present them in that language. After a boisterous protest, a vote was held and a large majority agreed to allow delegate reports to be given in Yiddish. The reports included a presentation from members of the Cloak and Skirt Makers Union, who informed a rapt audience that they were prepared to engage in a general strike if their demands were not met.
75 Years Ago in the Forward
Bank robbers and murderers Murton and Irving Millen and Abraham Faber, all young Jews, were put to death this week in the electric chair. Rabbi Moyshe Sedar, who was with them in their final moments, said they were very nervous and upset. He read Psalms with them and said that they each recited the Shm’a in the electric chair. The Millen brothers and Faber had no criminal records and worked together in a radio business. Faber, a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was regarded as a brilliant young man. The events surrounding the crime and punishment have greatly distressed Boston Jews.
50 Years Ago in the Forward
Israeli Premier David Ben-Gurion has been sent a letter by the government of Argentina, demanding that Nazi murderer Adolf Eichmann be returned to that country. At this point, after Israeli agents captured Eichmann and secretly brought him to Israel, it seems unlikely that he will be returned. Argentina’s government wrote that if Eichmann is not returned within a week’s time, it will lodge a formal complaint with the United Nations. It is hoped that the clash will not escalate into a situation in which diplomatic relations between the two countries is broken, but because Argentina’s response was angrier than expected, anything is possible.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
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