Chief Rabbi Jakob Niemirower miraculously escaped death at the hands of three young assassins yesterday when a bullet fired at close quarters penetrated his clothes, causing a slight flesh wound on his arm.
The three assassins are members of the same anti-Semitic organization, the Iron Guardists, responsible for the slaying in the last days of 1933 of Premier Ion Duca.
The attempt on the Chief Rabbi’s life was made while he was enroute to the synagogue. In all five shots were fired by the youths, one of whom was arrested by the police after a chase.
Rabbi Niermirower, who is a Senator in the Roumanian Parliament by appointment, is confined to his home today suffering chiefly from shock. The attempt on his life created a sensation in the Jewish community here.
Rabbi Niemirower is 65 years old and has been chief rabbi of Bucharest since 1921. In 1927 he was appointed to the Senate as the representative of Rumanian Jewry. He is one of the oldest of the Rumanian Zionists and for a long time has been president of the Rumanian branch of the international fraternal order, B’nai B’rith, which has its world headquarters in Cincinnati.
Recently Rabbi Niemirower was the center of an anti-Semitic incident in Czernowitz. An invited guest to a banquet in honor of Archbishop Victor Puiu Visarion, he was barred entrance to the banquet hall by Deputy Robu, member of the anti-Semitic Cuzist party. The Archbishop later expressed his regrets.
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.
