McVicker's Theatre Souvenir Programme. Thursday Afternoon, May 28, 1903. Benefit for the Persecuted Jews in Russia

In 1903 Russian Jewry was beset by murderous pogroms, the most infamous of which was that in Kishinev of April 1903, during which 47 Jews were killed, 600 injured, 700 houses destroyed, 600 stores pillaged, and 2,000 families utterly ruined. These events resulted in expressions of shock throughout the civilized world. In the United States, a petition signed by thousands of all faiths was presented to President Theodore Roosevelt, to be forwarded to St. Petersburg. See JE, Vol. VII, pp. 512-14 This production on silk - possibly unique - certainly one of not more than a bare handful, was presumably presented to a senior dignitary associated with this event, an early precedent to the development of political empowerment by Jews in America