Investigation Discloses Trail of Anti-Jewishness on Part of Pupils and Teachers (Jewish Telegraphic Agency)
Anti-Semitism is rampant in many schools in White Russian towns, an investigation made by the correspondent of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency revealed. Some of the teachers encourage Jew baiting, seating the Jewish pupils apart from their non-Jewish class-mates.
Recently the pupils’ court in a school in Kalinkovitch tried the pupil, Gontcharenko, who had shouted “Zhid! Beat the Jew-boys.” During the trial, several of the pupils exclaimed: “If Gontcharenko is an anti-Semite, so are we.” The trial revealed that anti-Semitism existed among the teachers in the school. Gontcharenko was expelled.
Similar conditions exist in Tomkovitch, where a seventeen-year-old student shouted: “Kill the Jews.” The teachers’ council considered this merely a joke. In the same school, a student called a teacher “Zidovka” (Jewess) in the presence of the superintendent. When questioned, the superintendent said he could not recall this incident, since similar remarks are often heard He also objected to a “fuss over such trifles.” Two teachers, Communists, sought to hush up the facts and voted against a resolution seeking to oust the anti-Semites.
An investigation in a Bobruisk brick factory revealed facts which led to the trial of six anti-Semites. The trial will be started soon. The Mohilev food union expelled one member who was found to be an anti-Semite.
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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.
