Two Jews were killed, four seriously injured and many others slightly hurt as a result of a bloody fight between members of the Young Communist League and Jewish worshippers in Berditchev on the second day of Rosh Hashanah, the Illustrowany Kurjer Codzienny of Cracow reports. The paper says that at least a hundred persons were also arrested following the clash.
According to the Cracow paper, members of the Young Communist League, under the leadership of one Somolow, alias Sommerfield, began to disperse the holiday worshippers while the services were on. When the leader of the congregation, Rabbi Rappaport, drew the attention of the Young Communists to the fact that the Ogpu, the Soviet secret police, had given permission for the holiday prayers, Somolow spat in the venerable rabbi’s face.
Aroused to indignation by this deliberate affront, the Jews sought to expel the Communists from the synagogue. This led to the fight in which a cavalry troop was impressed into service, the Cracow paper reports. The cavalrymen are said to have beaten the Jews mercilessly, Rabbi Rappaport being among those injured. After the attack had ended scores of Jewish homes were searched and a hundred or more Jews arrested.
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