The May Day celebrations resulted here in an increase of anti-Jewish feeling. The government organ, “Lietuwo Saidas,” took the lead in the agitation when it published an editorial accusing the Lithuanian Jews of “spreading Communism.” Its argument was that although the Jewish population constitutes only 7% of the total population, the number of Jews among those arrested on May Day was disproportionately great.
The government organ, however, failed to say that the arrests were made by the police, not on the basis of evidence, but on mere suspicion. The May Day celebration coinciding with the last day of Passover, the Kovno guardians of order seized a great number of Orthodox Jews who happened to have been returning from synagogue services. Among those arrested were also sixty young Jewish girls who were subjected to a torturous cross-examination and will, it was declared, be tried before a court martial. A police report also asserted that eighty per cent of the demonstrators in the May Day procession were Jewish school children.
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.
