January 14, 2011

100 Years Ago in the Forward

Riots broke out in the Bronx and in the Brownsville and East New York sections of Brooklyn after Jewish women discovered that bread companies had tried to trick them into thinking that a new kashrut label on packages of bread was actually a union label. The people running the Bread Trust thought that putting a “kosher” label that resembled a union label would fool local women into thinking they were buying a union-made product. But they were mistaken: People making bread deliveries to these neighborhoods were attacked, and the bread was dumped in the street. Perhaps worst of all, the idiots at the Bread Trust who came up with this idea didn’t know Hebrew properly, and instead of writing ّùë (kosher), they wrote ّùل (meat).

75 Years Ago in the Forward

The mood of young mothers on Manhattan’s Lower East Side is not a happy one. Recently, a man attempted to kidnap 9-year-old Irwin Goen, but he was foiled after the boy began crying. A group of local women pounced on the man and screamed “Kidnapper!” Young Irwin was saved, and police had to rescue the kidnapper from the women, who were giving him a good pounding. This event comes on the heels of the kidnapping of infant Jackie Horowitz, just two weeks prior. The baby still hasn’t been found. It is thought that local lunatic Gussie Freedman has him stashed away somewhere.

50 Years Ago in the Forward

Since the recent Pan-African Summit in Casablanca, Morocco, at which Egyptian dictator Gamel Abdel Nasser declared that Israel is an instrument of imperialism and neo-colonialism, attacks on the Jews of Morocco have increased significantly. The day that Nasser arrived in Casablanca, a number of the city’s Jews, mostly young people, were arrested and are now being held in prison and tortured. The situation in general for Moroccan Jews is considered dangerous, and many of them are seriously considering fleeing the country. Meanwhile, local Jewish leaders have met with the mayor of Casablanca in order to try and quell the attacks on the Jews.

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and the protests on college campuses.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO