Looking Back: January 27, 2012
100 Years Ago in the Forward
Police say that the gang of thieves they caught breaking into the large Manhattan pawn shop on Grand Street near Forsyth Street is responsible for a large number of recent break-ins and robberies. They also said that the gang had some of the most advanced safecracking tools they had ever seen. Among the arrestees were 28-year-old Joseph Cohen, 32-year-old Joseph Wolf and 25-year-old Harry Gold, all residents of Brooklyn. The police noted that this group didn’t engage in the usual method of safecracking, namely blowing off the door with dynamite. Instead, the thieves used a different method that involved specially designed wires and tools with which they were able to pop open the safes and then leave without a trace.
75 Years Ago in the Forward
Leon Trotsky, in an interview with the editors of Der Veg, a Yiddish newspaper in Mexico City, said it saddens him that he never learned Yiddish, mostly because he wanted to be able to read the Yiddish press. In his youth, he said, it was thought that the Jews would assimilate and disappear into the cultures of their respective countries. But the current political situation, driven as it is by nationalism and anti-Semitism, requires a different view. “The people,” Trotsky said, meaning the Jews, “cannot exist with a territory. Zionism is based on that idea, but it is not clear that it can solve the Jewish problem. The conflict between the Jews and the Arabs is tragic. But I do not believe that the Jewish question can be solved by rotten capitalism under the control of British imperialism.”
50 Years Ago in the Forward
The Arab leaders of Gaza City have sent Israeli military administrators a petition requesting that they reopen businesses and industries that have been forcibly closed, most notably the fishing industry. Gaza’s leaders are asking for Israeli cooperation on an economic basis. The city elders of Khan Yunis have sent an official document thanking the Israelis for their cooperation in helping their local industries and for maintaining security. They have also sent requests for the Israelis to remain in Gaza and to continue their administration of it.
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