Parade postponed

Amazing story of how a parade in 1788 New York in support of ratifying the new Constitution was postponed due to Shiva Asar B’Tamuz.  Besides the fact that the constitutionalists showed such great respect and sympathy for the small Jewish community, what surprised me was how a community that didn’t have rabbis or any institutions of higher learning was still so in sync with Jewish observance and the calendar that a minor fast day would be an issue in the first place.