The fantastic but apparently well-substantiated story of a Russian Cossack leader and pogromist who embraced the Jewish faith following the admonition by his father’s spirit to desist from murdering Jews is given wide circulation here among Jewish and non-Jewish circles.
The former Cossack leader’s name is Costi, who was in command of one of General Petlura’s regiments, and whose troops perpetrated a series of pogroms in the Ukraine. It was while his regiment, the story goes, that the spirit of Costi’s father appeared to him in his dream and reproached him for the murder of innocent Jews. Costi suddenly left his regiment to visit his father’s grave at Zanov, Bessarabia. Shortly after his visit he became converted to Judaism and adopted the name of Abraham Ben Abraham.
The former leader is now said to be studying Hebrew assiduously and to attend Synagogue regularly.
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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.
