Kovno Rabbi Adamant on Appeal to Permit Dissection of Corpses

(Jewish Telegraphic Agency)

The action of Lithuanian students in barring their Jewish classmates from the medical college as long as Jewish corpses are not supplied for dissection has caused great concern to the university authorities and Jewish leaders here.

Professor Lachas, dean of the Medical College of the Kovno University, called on Chief Rabbi Schapiro yesterday, requesting him to permit Jewish corpses to be furnished to the clinics.

Rabbi Schapiro is reported to have declared that Jewish law does not permit dissection of corpses.

A Jewish physician representing the Kovno Medical Society also presented the same request to the Chief Rabbi but achieved no result.

In view of the fact that the Lithuanian students still will not allow their Jewish classmates to enter the clinics, the professor of anatomy refused to deliver his lecture. He declared that if the dissection of corpses is against Jewish law, the Jews cannot be compelled to deliver corpses.

Professor Berzischka, dean of the University, in an interview with press representatives, disclosed that an investigation is now being conducted to inquire into the allegations made by the non-Jewish students that the Jewish students are mishandling the Christian corpses. If this is true, the guilty ones will be punished, he declared.