Imprisoned for Refusing Army Supervisor’s Order to Cut Off Beard and Earlocks(Jewish Telegraphic Agency)
A test case of great importance to many Orthodox Polsh Jewish military high court, due to the intervention of the Union of Orthodox Rabbis of the United States and Canada.
A military court some time ago sentenced Hirsch Frankel, assistant rabbi of Tarnopol, Galicia. now a soldier in the Tarnopol, Galicia, now a soldier in the Polish army, to four months solitary imprisonment for his refusal to obey the order of his superior in the regiment to cut off his beard and carlocks. Frankel, in declining to obey the order. declared that he would not violate the commandment of the Torah. The sentence was recently confirmed by the Military Supreme Court.
The Union of Orthodox Rabbis of the United Sates and Canada, through the office of the Polish Consul in New York City, engaged the services of the well known Polidh attorney Hofmokl Ostrowski to fight the case. According to court procedure, a decision by the Military Supreme Court is not subject to appeal, the only avenue of relief being executive clemency of the President of the Republic. Mr. Hofmolk-Ostrowski found, found, however, that a precedent existed for exception being made to allow an appeal. The case is soon to come up before a plenary session of the Military Supreme Court.
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