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Rabbis Calm Populace

July 7, 1931
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In their effort not to give the anti-Semitic agitators a pretext for further attacks, the rabbis of Saloniki today took the extraordinary precaution of resisting the proposal of Jewish merchants to close their shops, forbidding special prayers and conducting a quiet and unobstructive funeral for the only Jewish victim of the June 29 outbreak who died Saturday. The only other fatality was a Greek baker who was shot when he refused to join the rioters.

All of those injured were discharged from the hospital today, although some are not entirely recovered. Fifteen Jews and an equal number of Greeks who had been held for complicity in the riot were discharged today while new warrants were issued for the arrest of the suspected ringleaders of the outbreak.

An examination of the damage done by the rioters on June 29 showed that the poorest Jewish quarter, known as the Camphell section, is entirely in ruins. Eleven barracks were destroyed, a synagogue wrecked, Torah Scrolls ripped to shreds, a physician’s house gutted, a pharmacy wrecked and 219 Jewish families rendered homeless. These Jews have now found temporary refuge in a synagogue and a Jewish school in another section of the city.

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