False Rumors of Pogrom in Jerusalem on Rosh Hashanah Spread in Warsaw

(Jewish Telegraphic Agency Mail Service)

The Second Day of Rosh Hashanah was one of tremendous excitement for the Jews of Warsaw by reason of the publication of a report issued by the Polish Telegraphic Agency dated from Jerusalem stating that a pogrom had taken place in Jerusalem on the First Day of Rosh Hashanah, that Jews had been attacked by Arabs, and three Jews had been killed and many seriously wounded. The police had with great difficulty restored order, the report stated.

On Saturday night when the Jewish papers of Warsaw were going to press, their editorial offices were besieged by crowds of Jews anxious for further particulars of the alleged pogroms in Jerusalem. Tens of thousands of Jews in Warsaw and other parts of Poland have relatives in Palestine and were anxious to know what had happened, apart from their interest in the general safeguarding of public order in Palestine. They wanted details, the names of the killed and wounded, for fear lest their own relatives might be among the wounded.

Cables were sent to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency offices in London, Berlin and Jerusalem; to the Zionist Organization Headquarters in London and Jerusalem and to private persons in Palestine, by the Jewish Press, Zionist institutions and private individuals, asking for further particulars. No one thought that the whole story might be invented.

The Berlin office of the J. T. A. cabled to Warsaw that neither the Wolff Official Telegraphic Agency, nor any of the German dailies with representatives in Jerusalem had received any information of such disturbances in Jerusalem. A similar reply was received from the J. T. A. office in London. The Palestine Office of the J. T. A. cabled that no disturbances had taken place. The Warsaw J. T. A. office supplied these denials to the Polish Jewish press and on Sunday morning the newspapers carried the denials and somewhat calmed the feeling among the Jewish population.

The report appears to have emanated from London in a message issued in Berlin by the United Press and repeated by the Polish Telegraphic Agency giving the source, however, as if the message had been received direct from Jerusalem.

George Blumenthal, organizer of the French opera comique season which will open in New York on Nor. 29, is returning to New York on the Aquitania after completing the arrangements for the company’s departure for the United States.

The company will sail on the Paris on Nov. 3. It comprises a number of well-known French singers.

Blumenthal also signed a contract with E. Thomas Salignac, professor at Paris Conservatoire and the American School of Music at Fontainebleau, who will take charge of the artistic directorship.

Accused of selling pork concealed in what he claimed to be Kosher delicatessen products and pleading guilty of violating the Kosher meat law, Harry Rothstein of New York City, was sentenced in Special Sessions to thirty days in the workhouse.