October 21, 2005
100 YEARS AGO IN THE FORWARD
A group of hooligans, the same group that attacked the Bund headquarters on Manhattan’s East Broadway on Yom Kippur, showed up again this week outside the organization’s offices. As the group of delinquents stood outside, banging on the windows and laughing loudly, one of the Bundists, Comrade Berger, went out and asked them what they wanted. After one of them cursed him out, Berger punched him in the face. The entire group proceeded to attack Berger. Not to be outdone, the rest of the Bundists ran outside and began pounding the gang of hooligans so badly that they began to scream for the police.
75 YEARS AGO IN THE FORWARD
Jewish professional wrestler Herbie Freeman won again this week in New York in front of an audience of thousands, which included a significant number of Jews who came out to see the hometown boy. Not only is Freeman, whose record is currently 28-0, exceptionally strong, but he also has a large number of “trick” moves in his repertoire. When it comes to winning at wrestling, this is important. In other Jewish sports news, pugilist Maxie Rosenbloom is set to defend the light-heavyweight championship against challenger Abie Bain. Rosenbloom is the odds-on favorite, but Bain is a Jew, too. Therefore no matter what happens, the belt will remain in Jewish hands.
Emboldened by fascist victories in Germany, French antisemites have crawled out of their holes to demonstrate against the Jews. In France, where it was thought that antisemitism was dead and buried, shouts of “Down with the Jews!” have been heard in the streets. The antisemitic paper La Libre Parole has resumed publication. The majority of those behind the antisemitic agitation are the French Monarchists. It is hoped that their antisemitic propaganda will have as much effect as their Monarchist propaganda: none at all.
50 YEARS AGO IN THE FORWARD
At a press conference at the Overseas Press Club, six Soviet journalists currently on a visit to New York were forced to answer unsettling questions about Jewish life in the Soviet Union. Though they tried to avoid answering, the journalists were pressed until they gave a response. The Soviet journalists, from Pravda, Izvestia and other major publications, admitted that Yiddish writer Dovid Bergelson died in Moscow in 1947. Concerning Itsik Fefer, Peretz Markish and other Yiddish writers, they claimed to know nothing. Cornered later in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the journalists also admitted that they thought Markish was dead, too.
[Editor’s note: It is now known that Bergelson, along with the others, was executed in a Moscow prison in 1952.]
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