Looking Back: September 7, 2012
100 Years Ago
1912 Everything was set for the forthcoming wedding of Rose Mann and Isadore Schwartz. But then, tragedy struck: Mann was found dead in the Brooklyn apartment she was setting up for the young couple to reside in after their wedding. She had taken her own life by turning on the gas and asphyxiating herself. But a question remained: Why? Apparently, just a few days before her suicide, Mann had received a letter from an unknown woman who claimed to be Schwartz’s former lover. The letter warned her not to marry him. These words had a devastating effect on Mann, and although her family said she didn’t act strangely, she had apparently sunken into a deep depression, deep enough that she thought suicide was the answer.
75 Years Ago
1937 Sam “Chowderhead” Cohen, the 47-yearold strikebreaker who openly brags about his exploits of smashing the heads of workers on picket lines, has been sentenced to an as of yet undetermined amount of time in the state penitentiary for defrauding the Emergency Relief Bureau out of $733. Sadie Cohen, his wife, was also handed a suspended sentence for her part in the crime. Claiming that they were unemployed and destitute, the Cohens received funds from the bureau. The truth, however, was that Chowderhead consistently earned large sums of money as a strikebreaker, for which he has a long record. He complained in court that he wants to earn his living in an honest manner but the press won’t leave him alone.
50 Years Ago
1962 A huge throng greeted Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion as he stepped from his plane at the Copenhagen airport. A battalion from the Danish Air Force greeted him, as a military band played both “Hatikva” and the Danish national anthem. Then, Danish Premier Jens Otto Krag met him, as did the foreign minister. “We owe Denmark our deepest thanks,” Ben- Gurion said, “for the historic act performed by the Danish people, by the example set by your late King Christian the 10th in rescuing the Jewish citizens of Denmark from the Nazis.”
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we need 500 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Our Goal: 500 gifts during our Passover Pledge Drive!
