May 28, 2004
100 YEARS AGO
• New York City detectives are searching for 15-year-old Katy Garfinkel of East Harlem. Garfinkel disappeared two weeks ago. Her uncle, Paul Garfinkel, has been looking for her and just last week received information that placed the girl in a brothel on 30th Street. Garfinkel arrived at the brothel with two detectives, and was greeted by the madam, Sadie Wolf, who informed them that the girl was indeed staying there, but since she was 18 years of age, it was her choice. Two prostitutes informed the police that Garfinkel had been forced to stay in the brothel by the madam. As it turned out, Garfinkel was not at the brothel at the time and is still being sought. Wolf and the two prostitutes were taken in for questioning.
75 YEARS AGO
• Led by Chaim Nahman Bialik, the Hebrew writers of Palestine have appealed to the world’s Jews to save the Jews of Russia from disaster.“The Jews of Russia,” said Bialik, “are not only suffering materially, but also spiritually and from lack of morale. A campaign of terror, both open and secret, is being waged against the Jews of the Soviet Union. Hebrew writers, the Jewish religion and Zionism are all being attacked. If the world’s Jews do not try to rescue Russia’s Jews now, a terrible crime will have been committed that will never be forgiven.”
• “Jews are a people that fights for human rights and justice,” said automobile magnate Henry Ford at a banquet honoring David Brown, chairmanof the United Jewish Appeal. Brown grew up in Detroit, where he was a newsboy and a bootblack as a youth. He now lives in New York. Among those attending the banquet were Adolph Ochs, publisher of the New York Times, and Jewish eminence grise Louis Marshall. As noted, Henry Ford also attended, but sat motionless behind two bodyguards.
50 YEARS AGO
• Sixty Romanian-Jewish leaders in Israel began a hunger strike to protest the harassment of Zionists in Romania and to bring attention to the arrest and imprisonment of a number of Zionist leaders there. Among the strikers are a number of Knesset members, as well as former members of Romania’s parliament. About 1,000 people are participating in the hunger strike, which is taking place in the Great Synagogue in Tel Aviv. Such a large number of people wanted to participate in the strike that not all could fit into the synagogue, and some had to be turned away. While the chief rabbi of Tel Aviv and the head of the Jewish Agency were giving speeches to the hunger strikers, Israeli communists stood outside and defended the Romanian regime.
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