Yom Kippur Doings

P: At Toledo, one Andrew Cohen went to Rabbi Joseph S. Kornfeld early Yom Kippur morning, full of anguish. The rabbi knew that he (Cohen) was shortstop for the

Buffalo baseball nine, champions of the International League. The rabbi knew that the Buffalos were playing that day with the American Association's champion Toledo team for the minor league championship of the world; that Toledo had four wins to Buffalo's one; that Andrew Cohen's mates would suffer mentally and possibly financially if he could not play. Was there no dispensation in Judaism?

Rabbi Kornfeld, President Harding's friend and onetime (1921) Minister to Persia, proved himself a sympathetic latitudinarian on Yom Kippur, most solemn of Jewish days. Continuing his own fast, he fixed Shortstop Cohen a nourishing snack and sent him forth to play shortstop for Buffalo.

Shortstop Cohen played well. He came to bat four times; he made two "safe hits"; he "put out" three opponents; and six times he helped his mates in plays. He made no errors. But Buffalo scored no runs. Toledo made four, and won the game & the series. Andrew Cohen's share of the series' receipts was $750. Toledo players, victorious, received $1,000 each. P:Past Brooklyn synagogs on Yom Kippur Day screeched fire trucks; from Brooklyn synagogs ran children and fasting members of congregations. The owner of the Boston Laundry had neglected to turn off his gas iron the eve of Yom Kippur, and, pious, would not approach his place of livelihood on the holy Day of Atonement when Jews may do no labor. P: In Brooklyn, also, Yom Kippur Eye, 14 scoundrels, instead of attending synagog services, diced for money. Indignant neighbors informed police, who arrested the dicers. In court Yom Kippur, the judge sentenced all 14 to attend schul (synagog).

P: Rabbis attempted to make no "significant" statements this Yom Kippur. Ceremonies were more important than sermons. Jews had no great communal calamity to lament. Each turned inward in penitence, for a 24-hour examination of his conscience,