The Jewish Daily Forward has asked US postal authorities to investigate recent mailings to Jewish congregations and community centers all over the country of forged documents and Forward letterheads containing an attack on Israel for its alleged persecution of Orthodox Jews. The mailings also contained a leaflet, purportedly prepared by The Forward Association Inc., publishers of the Yiddish daily, which calls Israel “a disgrace among the nations” and displays a drawing of an Israeli policeman, labeled “Israeli Gestapo” clubbing a bearded figure labeled “Orthodox Jew.”
Simon Weber, editor of the Forward, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that “some of the leaders and rabbis of the various synagogues that received the forged documents have been inquiring as to the meaning of the Forward ‘change of policy.'” Forward columnist Dr. Judah J. Shapiro believes the source of the forged mailings to be followers of the Satmarer Rebbe, leader of a Hassidic sect in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn which denies the legitimacy of Israel’s existence on religious grounds.
The letter, dated Feb. 8, 1972, purports to be a Forward endorsement of complaints by the Lubavitcher Rebbe against alleged mistreatment of religious Jews in Israel. The forged letterhead does not correspond to the actual Forward letterhead. The typed signature is “Shimon Weber.” The written one is illegible. The letter contains a number of misspellings of simple words. According to Shapiro, “It ought not to be too difficult to find the swindlers because the drawings have been used previously by the Satmarer enemies of Israel.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
