Looking Back: June 22, 2012
100 Years Ago in the Forward
A number of rabbis have chimed in on the side of the butchers in the ongoing kosher meat strike that Jewish women have organized in New York. These rabbinical God botherers have firmly cast their vote in favor of the blood-sucking meat trust and against poor Jewish women and their families. They should know that the people are not on their side. Wholesale butchers have attacked ritual slaughterers, chicken flickers and strikers in various open-air markets around town. They have surrounded their stores with police and street toughs. No self-respecting Jewish woman will deign to buy at one of these butcher shops.
75 Years Ago in the Forward
Anyone who knows anything about the current situation in Czechoslovakia knows that it is a small, enlightened country surrounded by fascists. It’s current president, Eduard Benes, is a well-known fighter for democracy and humanitarianism. Many emigrants from Hitler’s Germany have found a home here, even though it is evident that Hitler is sharpening his teeth like a wolf in order to pounce on the small, democratic country. But it stands to reason that culture flourishes in a place like this, and, interestingly, a very successful version of “The Dybbuk” is currently being performed in Pressburg (Bratislava). This version is being performed in Slovakian as an opera. None of the performers is Jewish, but all have taken to their respective characters and portray the Hasidim in the story quite accurately. Moreover, the opera is a great success.
50 Years Ago in the Forward
Last year, Yossele Schumacher’s religious grandfather abducted him out of fear that the child’s parents would not give him a proper education. Yossele’s grandfather held him in the Agudat Yisrael-run settlement of Komemiyut, in the Negev desert. All the defendants in the case have now been released. There was an alleged meeting with two rabbis, both of whom are Knesset members representing the ultra-orthodox Agudat Yisrael party. The rabbis denied all involvement from the very beginning of the case.
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