American Jewish Congress sources have confirmed the reports that five prominent Jewish leaders in Rumania have been sentenced to long prison terms for “Jewish activities” after a secret trial on July 20, by a Bucharest military court, Dr. Israel Goldstein, president of the organization, revealed today at a joint meeting of that organization’s executive and administrative committees.
He disclosed that the one-day secret trial sentenced the following Rumanian Jewish leaders for organizing “a political Zionist underground movement:” Mr. Edgar Kenner, Mr. Horowitz, Mr. S. Schittonowitzer, Mr. Pascue Schechter and a Mr. Tabakaro. The news of this trial was kept out of the Rumanian press and radio, in contrast to the publicity which had formerly characterized trials of this kind.
The same sources which confirmed the July 20 trial, Dr. Goldstein reported, disclosed that preparations are under way for the secret trial of three other outstanding Rumanian Jewish leaders. They are Mr. Jean Cohen, former president of the Rumanian section of the World Jewish Congress; Mr. Jean Littman, former chairman of the World Jewish Congress branch in Bucharest, and Mrs. Susanne Benvenisti, wife of the former president of the Zionist Federation of Rumania, who has himself been imprisoned for some time.
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