Circ Umcision on Trial in Soviet Russia Minsk Mohel Accused of Causing Death of Child He Circumcised

The trial of the Mohel Jonah Radunski, who was arrested in Minsk, the capital of White Russia, at the beginning of this month, on the charge of causing the death of the child of a Jewish worker named Tchertook by carrying out the “barbaric rite of circumcision” against the will of the father, is not shaping on the lines intended by the local Jewish Communists, who had announced it as “a great demonstration against clericalism and medievilism”.

From reports in the Minsk Yiddish Communist daily “oktiabr”, Radunski is bearing himself with great dignity in court, producing evidence to show that he is an expert Mohel and that the allegations that his instruments were neglected and rusty are untrue. He showed that he had sterilised his instruments and had sterilised his hands, using all the proper medical and surgical precautions, and buying his medicaments from the Soviet drug store.

A local medical man, Dr. Churgin, gave evidence bearing out his statements, and paying high tribute to Radunski’s skill.

The mother of the dead child also gave evidence strongly in favour of the Mohel, defending him in every way, and the father of the child, Sholom Tchertock, a builder’s mason, 23 years of age, denied the statement made by the prosecution that the child had been circumcised against his will. He had not objected to the circumcision of his child, he said. He had merely told his wife that she could do as she pleased about it.

Although the hearing of witnesses was closed at the first session, which lasted, however, through the night, until 2 o’clock in the morning, the trial is being continued, the Prosecution still holding to the belief that it will be possible to convert the trial into a big anti-religious demonstration.

HOW JEWISH COMMUNISTS FORMULATED CHARGE: “NO DOUBT HE IS RESPONSIBLE FOR DEATH OF SCORES OF CHILDREN”.

Jewish clericalism will be put on trial in Minsk, the Jewish Communist paper “Emess” announced when Radunski was arrested, declaring that “there is no doubt that he is responsible for the death of scores of children” The investigating authorities, it alleged, have come into possession of his “sacred” tools, and the instruments are all dirty and rusted. It often happened that the child would bleed on the day of the Brith or the next morning, and I would go and stop it, “the great medico” Radunski has said, the “Emess” correspondent wrotes. His neighbours say of him, however, he added, that Radunski (who is also a Shochet) slays poultry and children.

When Tchertock’s wife gave birth to her first child, the “Emess” went on, the grandparents induced the mother to have the child circumcised without her husband knowing about it, because being a worker he is opposed to this old barbaric religious custom. The Rabbi joined in their entreaties, as did also the President of the synagogue, Radunski himself and a group of other “believers”. The agitation was started while the mother was still in the lying-in hospital. They drew up a strategic plan to have the child circumcised quietly, without fuss, so that no one should be any the wiser. On the ninth day they made careful preparations for their sinister ritual. They got together a group of pious Jews, relatives, Beth Midrash habitues. They selected an hour when the father would be away from home, and Rabbi Jonah Radunski came to perform his “good deed”. Having circumcised the child, Radunski got his pay, according to the rates, and a few roubles besides from the grandparents. The same evening the child began to bleed. The first-aid was called in, and the child was taken to hospital where on the second day it died from loss of blood, caused by the wound inflicted by the act of circumcision. The parents seeing what a sinister net the Nepmen-clericalist group had spread about them, reported the matter to the Jewish People’s Court.

“The news of this sinister ritual which had resulted in the death of a new-born child infuriated the Jewish workers of Minsk”, the “Emess” wroto, and “wherever you go, in the street, in the club, in the factories, you hear nothing cut the story of Radunski, the Mohel. The workers demand that he should be found guilty of the death of the child and severely punished, and that a big social trial should be arranged against the counter-revolutionary propagators of the dark Middle Ages. The workers demand an intensification of the fight against the Jewish religious traditions, against the Jewish religious festivals, against the Jewish customs and all the survivals of an out-moded way of life”.