Charges that for the second time within less than three months attempts were made by the Bessarabian police to kill innocent Jewish victims on the alleged assumption they were spreading communist propaganda, is made by “Unser Zeit,” in connection with the death of a Jewish tailor’s apprentice, Chaim Lewit.
Lewit was among 18 Jews arrested by the police last Sunday, on the ground that they were among the Communist group organizing a demonstration in Kishineff in connection with the elections.
The police at first charged that Lewit was a Communist. Subsequently, the police depart the youth must have been killed by one of the demonstrators. A postmortem examination revealed, however, that Lewit was shot in the back with a revolver of the type used by police sergeants.
“Unser Zeit” demands the government instruct the Bessarabian authorities to investigate the situation in Bessarabia and it is understood that such an inquiry will be conducted.
The paper points out that “our previous complaints never reached former high government authorities but now we persist in demanding the government pay attention to the widespread indignation and organize an immediate inquiry.”
“Unser Zeit,” the paper which published the first reports of the torture of Samson Bronstein, Zionist leader of Yedinez, Bessarabia, asserts that “last Sunday’s events destroyed our faith and hope in the new government before we were able to relax from the limitless terror by the former government and while hundreds of innocent victims still linger in the prisons from the time of the Jorga regime.”
The paper denies the allegation that Lewit was a Communist and terms the police charges a tissue of lies.
It points out that Lewit’s parents are poor, observant Jews and that the son always accompanied his father to the synagogue. It is unthinkable that he was a Communist, “Unser Zeit” asserts.
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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.
