January 16, 2009
100 Years Ago in the Forward
A brand-new magazine has appeared in New York’s Jewish quarter. Called the Shabbos Journal, it’s brought to you by what is known as the Organization of Shabbos Supporters. The purpose of the magazine is to promote the keeping of Shabbos among the Jews of the Lower East Side. What’s a bit odd about the new magazine is that its editorial staff comprises a couple of former anarchists and some writers who aren’t exactly known as the most pious of Jews. We know there are plenty of honest Orthodox Jews among the immigrants of New York, and we have enormous respect for them. What we don’t respect is a bunch of hypocrites propagandizing on behalf of something they don’t even do themselves. If real Orthodox Jews were to agitate in support of Shabbos, it would be natural. But these Johnny-come-lately “frummies” are a joke.
75 Years Ago in the Forward
Amid the noise — the chaos of streetcars, the screeching of the “El” and the rush of passersby at the corner of Sixth Avenue and 21st Street — sits a quiet little Jewish cemetery that no one ever seems to notice. The gate is rusted, and many of the gravestones are already illegible. Hundreds of years old, the lot was purchased by the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue, although buried there are Jews from a number of different European countries. The last burial there took place nearly 100 years ago and was of well-known Orientalist professor Isaac Gordimer, who immigrated to New York from Bavaria.
50 Years Ago in the Forward
Radio Moscow has been broadcasting incredible charges against the State of Israel, including the “fact” that the Israeli military is the servant of the West and is the first to attack the Arabs for its masters, the French and British. Moreover, the Soviets say, whenever Western diplomats visit Israel, the country’s borders get bigger. America, they say, is getting Israel to “choke” Syria. They also claimed that America’s attempt to improve its relationship to the United Arab Republic is a flat-out lie and that its real goal is to cause division among the Arabs and take their land.
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