Prohibition; new PBS Ken Burns Series

Cafe Society
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The series was terrific for all the reasons others have already stated. Very informative and interesting, rarely boring. I also loved the gorgeous photography, such as the photo of downtown Chicago at dusk, or Bigelow’s Pharmacy in Greenwich Village in the 1920s, still standing and open for business today.

One thing that was a bit irksome, though subtle enough that I don’t think I noticed it until somewhere in the second episode, were the added sound effects. A quiet “pop” over a silent clip of a man pulling a cork out of a bottle, the sound of guns being cocked upon being shown a still photo of a group of shotgun toting Feds, the sound of the wind and birds chirping during some outdoor scene that I can’t recall. Was this done in the Civil War doc, or others? Never noticed it until now.

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In rewatching the first hour, the claim was made that Jewish families were given authorization to purchase a certain quantity of wine per week-as Jewish religious custom required the consumption of wine.
They go on to say that in order to buy the wine, the head of the family had to obtain a certificate from their rabbi-and that all of a sdden, there were bogus rabbis (named Sullivan, Murphy, other non-Jewish names) handing out these certificates.
Is this true? Was there a big jump in the Jewish population of NYC, come 1919?

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New York Times headline, 2 February 1922: