Mexico’s only Yiddish-speaking “cop” has been granted a two-months’ leave of absence for a visit to the United States, where he will officially represent General Jose Juan Mendez, Mexico’s chief of police, on a study tour of five cities.
Theodore (Ted) Gonzalez is the only member of the police department, with a force of 4,500 men and women, who is familiar with the Yiddish dialect, and he didn’t learn it in Mexico.
At the age of two years, Gonzalez, who was born in Guadalajara, Jalisco, picturesque Mexican city, was moved, with his parents to the East Side of New York, where he was reared and educated. Along with his English he picked up a thorough knowledge of Yiddish, which he hardly ever uses here.
Gonzalez’ trip, which is to include visits to San Antonio, St. Louis, Washington, Chicago and Milwaukee and attendance at the special crime detection course of the Northwestern University of Chicago, was made possible through the kindness of David Karger, Milwaukee manufacturer of knit goods, who with Mrs. Karger spent a short vacation in Mexico early this year.
Because of his knowledge of English and Yiddish and an acquaintance with several other languages, Gonzalez is known as the police department’s “secretary of foreign relations” and to him are entrusted all the cases involving fugitives from other countries seeking refuge.
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.
