(Editor’s Note)—The first story of the arrest of the Minsk kehillah leaders that came from Moscow via J.T.A. gave no indication that they would be shot. The same day that the reports that the kehillah leaders would be executed or had already been executed, reports emanating from Warsaw where information to that effect had been received by Rabbi Israel Schapiro, known as the Grodsisker Rebbe, and Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodsenski, the Moscow correspondent of the J.T.A., cabled that there was no danger of their being executed. Later, after a long distance telephone conversation with a prominent Jewish leader in Minsk, the J.T.A. correspondent wired the reassuring news that not only were the kehillah leaders not to be shot but some of them were actually to be released.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.