The condition of Judge Simon Kuper, the South African Jewish leader who was shot last Friday in an assassination attempt, remained “most critical” today, according to a hospital report. Prayers for his recovery were offered in synagogues and churches.
The gunman vanished after the shooting and the police began an immediate investigation. No political motive was suspected in the assassination attempt since Judge Kuper never took part in politics. Judge Kuper, a former president of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies, was named to the High Court in 1955 after a distinguished career as an attorney.
Meanwhile, Mrs. Kuper made public an appeal from her husband to South Africa’s. Orthodox and Reform Jews to patch up their differences which have led to an order from the Orthodox Beth Din (rabbinical court) to Orthodox rabbis to boycott any communal function attended by a Reform rabbi.
Judge Kuper had planned a public appeal in the religious dispute and had made some notes just before he was shot. Mrs. Kuper found the notes and made them public today. The notes indicated that Judge Kuper had planned to criticize the attacks on Orthodox Judaism by Rabbi Ahron Opher, a Chicago rabbi who took a pulpit here. The Jewish leader also planned to say that Reform congregations were “an integral and valuable” part of the community.
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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.
