### Mendel Beilis considers himself #e “man whom world Jewry for#t.” Twenty years ago he was ac#itted in Kiev, Russia, of a murder ### ritual purposes. Today he lives ### the Bronx on the third floor of ### walk-up apartment building, sells #e insurance and moodily speculates ### the inscrutable fate that casually #ted him out of obscurity, focussed #e attention of the entire world ### him for two and one-half years, #d then just as casually dropped #m back into obscurity, this time ### the Bronx instead of a suburb of #iev. He is bewildered, more than ### bit resentful and completely puz#ed.Twenty years ago, the Beilis trial #ded in Kiev, and once more the #arge that the Jews use the blood ### little Christian children in the #king of matzoths for Passover, #as rejected. After two and one #lf years of rigorous imprisonment, #endel Beilis was freed. World #wry drew a deep breath of relief. #nother “alilas dom”, ritual murder #se, had been refuted. Jews ceased #ing agitated over Mendel Beilis, #d the innocent victim of the #umsy Czarist frame-up set about ### reconstruct his shattered life.
POWERFUL PHYSICALLY
{SPAN}###{/SPAN} Mendel Beilis is a rather tall, {SPAN}#ell-built{/SPAN} man in his late fifties, a {SPAN}#tle{/SPAN} inclined to corpulency, but still {SPAN}###{/SPAN} powerful man physically. He has {SPAN}###{/SPAN} deep bass voice and a rather {SPAN}im#sing{/SPAN} appearance. He talked {SPAN}will#gly{/SPAN}, leaning over the interviewer {SPAN}###{/SPAN} emphasize his points. He had {SPAN}#ed{/SPAN} in the Bronx for thirteen years, {SPAN}#ver{/SPAN} since he left Palestine in 1921. {SPAN}#hat{/SPAN} was his occupation? He sold insurance and looked after the sales {SPAN}#f{/SPAN} his book of memoirs, which was {SPAN}#ublished{/SPAN} both in Yiddish and {SPAN}Eng#sh{/SPAN}.
Had his ordeal receded in mem#ry? he was asked. “On the con#ary,” he replied. “I am still liv#g it over. It never leaves my #ind. Awake I think of it, and at #ight my sleep is troubled with it. #t seems as if it were only yesterday #hat the nightmare ended and I be#ame a free man once more.
“True, it seemed at that time as ###f I would be a rich man. I was #aid $6,000 for talking to an American newspaper man for fifteen minutes. And I received amazing offers from London, Paris, New York and #ven Hollywood. I was offered #uge sums to appear on the stage ### and in the movies. One, enterpris#ng American banker offered me ### $15,000 a year for life if I would ### come to the United States and mere#y sit in a New York bank for a few ### hours each day.
WOULDN’T EXPLOIT SELF
“But all these offers involved my exploiting myself as a Jew and as a Jewish victim of a cruel and unjust persecution. So I refused. And I would still refuse today. Even now I am occasionally approached by those who would like to use my name. Only the other day, I was asked to sign my name to a telegram protesting the Scottsboro verdict, but I refused.
“I went to Palestine hoping to find peace there, but the war intervened. I lost whatever little money I had, my oldest son died there, and I found it impossible to make a living.
“In 1921, I came to New York and have lived here ever since. My children grew up here and work when there is work. But even here, the shadow of the trial hangs over my head. It seems as if I will never get rid of it.
“I did not ask to be chosen as a victim, a “korban”, to stand up for the entire Jewish race. I was happy where I was. I had my work, my family, my friends. Suddenly I was taken away from this and became a symbol for the entire Jewish people, But since fate had chosen me, I went through the ordeal. I suffered, and my family suffered.
“Then when it was all over, I was promised a life of ease. Through me Jewry had been vindicated, but they forgot about me very quickly. And the burden of reconstructing my life was thrust on my shoulders. Why? I was not asked whether I wanted to be a symbol for Jewish suffering. But I was chosen, and now I have been forgotten.”
THE PACE IS TOO FAST
When he was asked whether he enjoyed his life in New York, Mr. Beilis shook his head and answered, “No, I have never become used to American life. It moves too fast for me. I still long for Palestine.” When informed that the Revisionists accused of the murder of Dr. Chaim Arlosoroff, brilliant young Zionist leader, referred to themselves as “Beilisites”, he laughed in scorn, and denounced the factionalism that was creating “trouble and disorder in Palestine.”
Could Mr. Beilis give one outstanding impression of the trial in Kiev. “Yes”, he answered, “the Russian Gentiles, who sacrificed themselves for me. There was real heroism, real sacrifice. They knew that by defending me their careers would be ruined, even their very lives would not be safe. But they persisted because they knew I was innocent.
“But I lived to see the rotten Czarist regime crumble. I lived to tell the whole story, and that is a miracle.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
