Colin Powell, Thurgood Marshall, and the Shabbos Goyim

The sad passing of Colin Powell has generated many loving accounts in Jewish media of his recollections serving as a "Shabbos goy" in his youth, when he assisted with tasks that were forbidden to observant Jews on the Sabbath. "Collie," as his Jewish employer called the teenaged Powell, told Jewish audiences that in addition to serving as a "shlepper" in a Bronx infant-goods store owned by an Orthodox Jew, he collected a quarter each Friday night for turning off the lights at the synagogue.