June 26, 2009

100 Years Ago in the Forward

The streets of Jerusalem are full of fury, as it was discovered that the holy city has been dirtied by the publication of a new Yiddish newspaper. To make matters worse, Hebrew had just begun to get a foothold, and now this. The Hebraists are up in arms. What’s worse, the whole Yiddish operation was created by a Sephardic Jew by the name of Israel Shirizli. Nobody remembers the first attempt to print a Yiddish paper in Jerusalem more than 30 years ago; the paper, The Rose, lasted for only three or four issues. At that time in Palestine, nobody read newspapers, and even the Hebrew papers published only a few hundred copies, most of which were mailed abroad. But now that there is an ideological movement behind Hebrew, its proponents think they should wipe out Yiddish.

75 Years Ago in the Forward

The New York Post reports that Adolf Hitler soon will be driven from power, a claim made by a German government insider writing under the pseudonym “Johannes Stil.” The writer also claims that Hitler’s impending ouster is mainly connected to economic conditions in Germany and that his power has been weakened significantly. Also, the person who truly holds power is the president of the Reichstag, Schlacht. After Hitler is driven from power, Stil claims, a coalition of monarchists and conservatives will create a military dictatorship to replace the Nazi one that currently rules Germany. There is also a chance that Hitler will be kept in power, either as president or as prime minister, to serve as a figurehead without any real authority.

50 Years Ago in the Forward

Editorials were published in three Arabic newspapers — two in Jordan and one in Lebanon — calling on Arab governments to abstain from using Arab refugees as a political weapon. The influential Beirut-based Al-Hayat criticized Arab countries for exploiting the Arab refugee situation for the past 10 years. All the papers called for positive and constructive action on the refugee issue. The Jordanian paper, Falastin, wrote, “It would be better if one Arab country could present a concrete, positive plan than to simply negatively oppose Hammarskjold’s plan.” Al-Hayat added, “It is high time to stop using refugees as a political weapon.”

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