Biography
Jack Rubenstein was a young picket-line leader of the 1926 Passaic textile strike. Contemporary labor publications report repeated arrests and police violence. An assault-and-battery prosecution led to a six-month sentence and $500 fine on April 28, 1927, but he was released on bail pending appeal on May 19, 1927. His earlier March 1926 pretrial detention is recorded separately; the sentence imposed is not the duration actually served.
The June 1927 account distinguishes an initial March 1926 picketing prosecution, with a ninety-day nominal sentence and actual bail release March 19, from his immediate rearrest on the jail keeper's assault allegation. The earlier picketing custody is a separate case from the already recorded March 19–22 pretrial episode and April–May 1927 sentence service. Ninety days imposed is not entered as ninety days completed. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1927/v02n06-jun-1927-LD.pdf#page=6
1920s custody-date review: Original newspaper pages distinguish the March 19-22, 1926 pretrial detention from the April 28-May 19, 1927 post-sentence confinement. Labor Defender states bail continued until the April 28 sentencing. The May 21 Daily Worker carries a May 20 dispatch reporting release yesterday, establishing May 19, 1927. The previous July 1927 release is replaced; the six-month sentence must not be described as six months actually served. An earlier March 1926 picketing detention ending March 19 is mentioned by the source, but its initial arrest day remains unresolved. Existing portrait retained.
Sources: Labor Defender, June 1927, printed pages 85 and 95, Jack Rubenstein and Whitey Adamchesky; Daily Worker, May 21, 1927, page 1, Jack Rubenstein Free on Judges Writ of Error in Passaic Textile Case. Relevant original pages visually checked.
1920s duration reconciliation: The source-supported interval 1927-04-28 through 1927-05-19 computes to 21 elapsed days (end minus start). This is the specific documented custody episode, not necessarily lifetime custody; earlier or later unquantified detention is excluded. Contemporary Labor Defender explicitly says bail continued until April28 sentencing; May20 dispatch reports release yesterday. Both actual custody endpoints supported;21days is this episode only. The previously blank audit expectation was superseded by this explicit evidence-based calculation; no event dates are changed here.
A separate Garfield detention ending in June 1926
A Garfield dispatch dated June 27 in the June 29, 1926 Daily Worker reports that Passaic textile-strike picket leader Jack Rubenstein had been arrested for disorderly conduct, placed in a cell and beaten by police. It says he was released yesterday, supporting June 26, 1926 as the reported physical release day. Police Chief John A. Forss denied the alleged beating. The article reports ten arrests during the preceding twenty-two weeks, not twenty-two weeks of continuous imprisonment. This Garfield cell-custody episode is distinct from the existing March 19–22, 1926 pretrial interval, which had already ended on a documented March release, and from the April–May 1927 post-sentence term. The June report provides no exact arrest or admission day and no measured actual duration. None is calculated backward or added to the existing numerical subtotal.
Daily Worker, June 29, 1926, printed pages 1–2. Contemporary allegations and quotations are attributed to the newspaper. The available PDF contains printed pages 1, 2, 5 and 6; missing issue pages 3–4 were not reviewed.
The Passaic strike report individually names Weisbord, Rubenstein and Miller as defendants facing prosecution; Rubenstein is specifically said to have been hospitalized after police beatings. The caption identifies Weisbord behind bars and separately shows Nina Shafransky being arrested. Anticipated prison terms are not completed service, and the article gives no individual release or final duration.
