Looking Back: November 25, 2011
100 Years Ago in the Forward
Nineteen-year-old Solomon Fruchtzweig and 20-year-old Leyzer Gleyzer, two known pimps from Sosnowiec, Poland, were arrested last week in Krakow for attempting to smuggle women from Germany to Egypt. After admitting their guilt, Fruchtzweig and Gleyzer fingered another resident, Chana Greenstein, who had promised the two men 100 rubles per body they managed to smuggle to its destination. Police have determined that these two have been some of the most active pimps in Galicia. One informant, a woman who was kidnapped in the Galician shtetl of Stanislav and taken to Cairo where she mangaged to escape, told the police that the men were part of a large, international smuggling ring.
75 Years Ago in the Forward
As the British Royal Peel Commission on Palestine continues to hear testimony in regard to the situation between Arabs and Jews in the Mandate, it becomes more and more clear that despite their smaller population, the Jews have done much to improve the economic life of the region. The committee’s research has already indicated that not one Jewish immigrant has become a public charge and that the economic and sanitary conditions have improved for all residents of Palestine. To the complaint that Jews have displaced Arabs, Louis Andrews, land development department secretary, noted that so-called “displaced” Arabs have moved to cities and are working in the industries. In fact, he said, he was not able to find Arab volunteers to work land the government was offering to farmers.**
50 Years Ago in the Forward
David Dragunsky, a well-known Soviet Jewish lieutenant general, said yesterday at a press conference in Paris that “traces” of anti-Semitism still exist in the Soviet Union. He said that this was a result of the three-year occupation of Nazi forces in the USSR, which spread a great deal of anti-Semitism. Dragunsky added that the Soviet government was eradicating the last traces of racism and popular anti-Semitism in the country. In response to the question of Soviet Jewish emigration, Dragunsky said: “Soviet Jews do not want to emigrate. They also do not want any Yiddish periodicals.”
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
