First Friday the 13th. Are you scared? Superstitious?
Oh c’mon. Friday the 13th isn’t that scary. Granted, it’s produced some unusual Jewish baby stories — but in a good way.
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Flloyd Olson, the Jewish-Nordic Yiddish-speaking governor of Minnesota, was born on Friday the 13th (in Nov. 1891).
And almost 150 years later, this heart warming story unfolded aboard the refugee ship Mousihno:
The baby born on shipboard–on Friday, the 13th–is Henryk Kaston, son of a Polish Jewish violinist, who served in the French army on the Maginot Line, was captured by the Germans, but managed to escape by a ruse and finally reached Lisbon to rejoin his wife.
If these happy tales aren’t enough to shake your superfluous superstition, be grateful: In 1928, Kodak founder George Eastman advocated for a 13-month calendar — where every month would have had a Friday the 13th.
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