The foreigners

The information I found on the foreigner suspects is from two different books. Jack the Ripper Key theories, and the public reactions. Also I found information about the suspects on the casebook website and some history about polish jews on http://209.85.229.132/search?q=cache:XDSuNGXMffEJ:members.core.com/~mikerose/history2.htm+polish+jews+1880&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk

In the 19th century a part of poland was governed by Austria. This government made legal regulations for the Jews in Poland. These regulations restricted the amount of occupations Jews were allowed to perform, for example, they were forbidden to be a chemist, or brewer. (that's not all, there is a whole list.) This forced the Jews to move to another country. In 1753 a jewish naturalization act was received in England but was repealed in 1754 due to a lot of oppositions to its provisions. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_Naturalization_Act_1753). Henry Pelham brought in the Jew Bill of 1753 as a reward for the Jews who helped to defend London during the Jacobite rising. This Bill allowed Jews to become naturalized by application to parlement.

A lot of Polish Jews immigrated to London because of the rather pleasant living circumstances in England compared to Poland its circumstances. In 1880 between 80.000 and 100.000 Polish Jews were living in London.

One of the first suspects that was a polish jew was John Pizer, before the name Jack the Ripper was established the police was searching for ‘leather apron’. John Pizer was a suspect because he always wore an apron. The community thought he was a Jew because he had an unusually thick neck, his hair is black and closely clipped. His expression is said to be sinister, his eyes small and glittering, his lips are usually parted in a grin. He was a suspect mostly because of his looks.

The second suspect was the Polish Jew Aaron Kosminski. He is the most popular polish jew suspect. He was known to have a great hatred for women and strong homicidal tendencies. He was admitted to a lunatic asylum. But research has since shown, that Kosminski - a former hairdresser - was a harmless imbecill. He picked up food from the gutters and refused to work. He had once threatened his sister with a knife, but he was neither suicidal or dangerous. And more importantly: he wasn't admitted to an asylum till he almost died! He had always been confused with"David Cohen"or Nathan Kaminsky the third suspect, because their names were so identical.

His name was changed from Kaminsky to David Cohen due to the language diffculty. The police did not want to bother writing his difficult original name. He is the only insane Polish Jew who was committed to an asylum at the right time for the murders to stop - and the only registered lunatic pauper admitted to Colney Hatch asylum between 1888-1890 who fits the extremely violent suspect described. He also - in contrast to Aaron Kosminski - died shortly after the canonical Ripper murders ceased.

So Sam, as you can see, Kosminsky was actually Kaminsky, if you find something that contradicts this, please post it. I find it a very interesting 'discussion'.