The New York Times, on April 8, 1 897 reported that park policeman Foley arrested a Rabbi Wechsler - though Rabbi Klein escaped - who had illegally convened a crowd of several hundred Jews in Tompkins Square to say the blessing on the sun. Reported the Times: "Rabbi Klein's knowledge of English is slight, while Foley's faculties of comprehension of matters...are not acute. The attempt of a foreign citizen to explain to an American Irishman an astronomical situation and a tradition of the Talmud was a dismal failure." The paper concludes by saying that "the new sun" service had been conducted in this country for 180 years, or since 1717. In 1897, it would have been the 203rd cycle of the sun. Now, we are entering the 207th.
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