Anti-semitic Leader, Sentenced to 10 Years, Confesses to Deliberate Act

Evsenko, Hooligan Leader of Attack on Jewish Colony Deprived of Citizenship for 5 Years (Jewish Telegraphic Agency)

Evsenko, ringleader of the anti-Semitic hooligans who attacked the Jewish colony Alex-ejewka, near Azarow, for which he was sentenced to ten years imprisonment at hard labor, confessed in court that he terrorized the Jewish settlers in an attempt to oust them from their colony. In addition to the prison term, he was deprived of citizenship for a period of five years.

The head of the town Soviet was sentenced to one year, and the policemen, Rybakov and Karaliev, to six months each. Six of the accused were acquitted.

The Bobruisk paper “Communist,” reports that a teacher in the town Vertchutinski, was discharged and indicted for saying: “Our government is not proletarian but Zhidovski (Jewish).” No action, however, has been taken against the teacher by the local court.

Anti-Semitism in the Klitchev schools is also reported in the same paper. A meeting of pupils and teachers demanded the dismissal of anti-Semitic teachers, but the higher authorities of the school refused to meet this demand. Anti-Semitism in the Bobruisk school has also been disclosed. Jewish children are being persecuted in the school. An investigation has been started.

The Minsk authorities are carrying out a plan to convert the religious houses of worship into workmen’s clubs. Ten, including the main synagogue, have already been confiscated. This is also being done in other White Russian cities.

Progress in the proletarization of the Jewish masses in White Russia is reported here. Finally realizing that they have no hopes for a livelihood in trade, the White Russian Jews are seeking proletarization in increasing numbers.

The correspondent of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency interviewed city officials, leaders, rabbis and workers in the Minsk district. The general opinion was that the position of the Jewish traders is precarious, but the workers and artisans are getting on.

Jewish artisans in the Minsk district number 18,000, having increased 400 per cent, since 1926. A similar increase is indicated throughout White Russia.

The general opinion prevailing is that the anti-Semitism spoken of in the Soviet press is not of an alarming character, although the newspapers admit freely increasing numbers of anti-Semitic occurrences. It is stated that the anti-Semitic spirit displayed in many schools is due to the presence there of teachers who had been taken over from the previous regime.