The Jews of Palestine as well as the Jews of other lands have been shocked by the unexpected verdict in the Arlosoroff murder case and the death sentence imposed upon Abraham Stavsky. The appeals issued by the Laborites and the Revisionists and by Chief Rabbi Kook, calling upon the Jews in Palestine to control their passions at this moment and to maintain order indicate the sense of responsibility of Jewish leadership in Palestine.
Nothing would please the enemies of Jewish Palestine more than intensified strife and conflict among the various political factions of Palestinian Jewry just now. Conviction of Stavsky for premeditated murder, on the basis of the flimsiest circumstantial evidence, naturally has aroused the Jewish population, by whom both the trial and the conviction are construed as a mysterious political maneuver to discredit the Jews by discrediting the element regarded as most objectionable to the Palestine administration.
It is difficult to believe that the Court of Justice in Palestine would lend itself to political pressure or influence. But unfortunately the course of the investigation and the trail has been marked by most puzzling incidents that have created doubt and suspicion.
The shocking verdict has been appealed. A new trial is almost certain to result in the acquittal of Stavsky. The vast majority of the Jews of Palestine are convinced of his innocence. Every legal effort should be made to save the life of this innocent youth. An adequate fund should be raised quickly for the legal defense of this victim of political atmosphere and intrigue.
The murderer of Chaim Arlosoroff has not yet been found. The Palestine police should concentrate their efforts on finding the real murderer. And the murderer, whoever he may be, Arab or Jew, should receive the full penalty for his dastardly crime, provided his guilt is substantiated beyond any doubt.
VIERECK’S ATTEMPT
The attempt by indirect insinuation on the part of George Sylvester Viereck to divert the attention of the Congressional Committee to the investigation of Communist and Fascist propaganda is a shrewd pro-Nazi move. It is to be hoped that the committee will not permit itself to be misguided to undertake the task of former investigating committees instead of concentrating on a searching inquiry into un-American Nazi propaganda activities in this country.
THE DISTURBANCE IN CASTORIA
According to a cable from Salonica, Apostil Papazoglou, the principal aggressor in the attack on the Jews at Castoria, Greece, has been arrested. It is reported that measures have been taken to maintain order there and that a careful inquiry is being made by the authorities. Although the perfect declared that Jews have exaggerated the importance of the recent occurrences in Castoria, it is believed that the government is determined to deal drastically with the Nazified Greek organization that started the anti-Jewish disturbances.
American Greeks, Jews as well as non-Jews, former residents of Castoria, were so shocked at the news of anti-Jewish excesses in their native town because the Jews and the non-Jews of Castoria have lived for centuries on terms of friendship, and their relations have never before been married by any manifestations of religious prejudice or hate. It is the recent influence of the Nazi agitation that is held responsible for the first anti-Jewish disturbances in Castoria.
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.
