Looking Back: April 20, 2012
100 Years Ago in the Forward
Fifteen minutes after the end of a matinee performance of “Her First Child,” Liptzin Theater manager Michael Mintz committed suicide on the theater’s stage. Mintz had been helping his wife, famed actress Kenny Liptzin, prepare for the evening performance of “Mirele Efros” at a theater in New Jersey. He had put her in a car and told the driver where to take her, when he remembered that she would need paper money as a prop. He returned to the Liptzin Theater’s dressing room to find a bundle of stage money. When he got backstage, he bumped into the company’s costume designer, Annie Perlman, whom he yelled at for leaving on the lights. He then went onstage, laid down on a prop bed and shot himself in the head.
75 Years Ago in the Forward
Famed German writer and exile Thomas Mann spoke before an audience of gentiles and Jews at an event that was organized by the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue and took place at Carnegie Hall. In his speech, Mann accused Hitler of deadening the German people’s brains with his anti-Semitic ideology and called for all people to fight against Nazism, adding that the battle against anti-Semitism should not be left only to othe Jews. Mann spoke about the important contributions Jews have made to German culture and stated that the Nazis were attempting to destroy the legacy.
50 Years Ago in the Forward
After rumors arose that Jewish refugees from Russia were being deported to the Soviet Union by the Polish government, a group of representatives from the Jewish Labor Committee met with Poland’s ambassador to the United States, Romauld Spasowski, who assured them that this was not the case. After the press published these deportation rumors, the JLC contacted the embassy in order to determine the truth of the matter. At that point, the ambassador himself invited the heads of the JLC to a meeting in Washington for discussions. In addition, the ambassador told them that Poland does not prevent Jews from emigrating — those who wish to leave are free to do so.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
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 polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a Passover gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Most Popular
- 1
News Student protesters being deported are not ‘martyrs and heroes,’ says former antisemitism envoy
- 2
News Who is Alan Garber, the Jewish Harvard president who stood up to Trump over antisemitism?
- 3
Politics Meet America’s potential first Jewish second family: Josh Shapiro, Lori, and their 4 kids
- 4
Fast Forward Suspected arsonist intended to beat Gov. Josh Shapiro with a sledgehammer, investigators say
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward Jewish students, alumni decry ‘weaponization of antisemitism’ across country
-
Opinion I first met Netanyahu in 1988. Here’s how he became the most destructive leader in Israel’s history
-
Opinion Why can Harvard stand up to Trump? Because it didn’t give in to pro-Palestinian student protests
-
Culture How an Israeli dance company shaped a Catholic school boy’s life
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.