Schwartzbard Trial Will Not Take Place This Year, is the Opinion in Paris

(Jewish Telegraphic Agency)

The trial of Sholom Schwartzbard, who killed Attaman Petlura, leader of the Ukrainian pogrom bands, will probably not take place this year, it developed following the first court examination before Magistrate Peyre yesterday. M. Henri Torres, counsel for Schwartzbard, was present at the first court examination.

“I killed a murderer,” was the declaration which Sholom Schwartzbard repeated in court. After the examination, Schwartzbard was permitted to speak to his wife.

The court examination will probably last twelve months. A committee of Jewish citizens was formed to place before the court all pogrom data. The committee conternplates sending an independent commission to the pogrom areas in the Ukraine.

Prominent Russian Jewish leaders, including Dr. Leo Motzkin, Dr. Heinrich Sliosberg. Max Vinaver, Vladimir Tiomkin and Dr. S. Goldstein of Riev will be called as witnesses in the trial. Christian Rakovsky, former president of the Ukraine, will probably submit the pogrom data which he has in his possession.

The “Action Francaise”, well known monarchistic and anti-Semitic newspaper, is conducting propaganda against Schwartzbard. The paper states that the investigation is a farce and that Schwartzbard killed Petlura on the order of the Soviet Embassy. The paper urges the authorities to look for Schwartzbard’s accomplices.

Eminent non-Jewish jurists in France are questioning the right of Denikin, Balachowitz and other pogrom leaders to remain in France as political refugees, contending that the instigation of pogroms is a criminal act. They demand the expulsion of the pogrom leaders from France.

The archives containing the history of the great Ukrainian massacres of the Jews, describing in fullest details the horrors of this slaughter, will be opened to the public for the first time as a means of defending Schwartzbard, a Berlin despatch to the New York “Times” states.

Schwartzbard had obtained permission to use the Berlin “East Jewish Historical Archives” to convince the French court that his act was justifiable on the ground of Petlura’s report on the pogroms in which thousands of Jews were murdered in cold blood.

More than 12,000 pages of reports and descriptions of the slaughtering are contained in the collections. Among the 500 documents are military orders issued before, during and after the pogroms, said to implicate Petlura directly. The register of the names of 20,000 killed is also included.

According to evidence in the archives, Petlura personally instigated and supported the unwonted slayings, which were carried out by men directly under his command while he was chief.

One of his aids, Colonel Korwenko, who headed the political police, organized with Colonel Palients, in 1919 the massacres of Bardichev and Chelomir. Colonel Patrow, who carried out the pogrom of March, 1919, was made Minister of War by Petlura as a reward for the successful outcome of a massacre in which more than 300 Jews were killed, it is said.

The archives were brought from the Ukraine by foreign diplomats about five years ago and classified by Professor Dubnow. They were collected from various parts of the Ukraine by Jewish communities and Jewish welfare organizations from 1919 to 1921.

JEWISH COMMUNAL ACTIVITIES

The Temple Sholom Congregation of Chicago will erect a new Temple on the North Side.

Coolidge & Hodgdon and Loebl & Schlossman have been appointed the architects.

The structure as planned will represent a total investment of $1,600,000. In addition to the the temple, which will have a seating capacity of 2,500, there will be a Community Center Building.

The exterior of the structure will be of stone and tile with Mosaic inserts and designs and a Mosaic tile roof. The interior will be of tile and stone and will have sixteen stained grass windows depleting biblical figures.

Entrauce to the Synagogue will be through two imposing bronze Pre-Gothic doors. Access to the main auditorium from the lobbies will be afforded by a series of doors, ramps and tunnels.

The Religious School will be housed in a semi-detached building at the rear. It will have 30 class rooms, all with outside light and each will have an average seating capacity of 40 pupils. An Assembly Room seating 1,500 is also included in the plans. This room will have a fully equipped stage, orchestra pit, dressing rooms, and kitchen.

Perhaps the most novel feature of the plans is the provision made by the architects for increased seating capacity in the temple at the time of the Jewish High Holidays. In the new Temple Sholom the architects have provided a movable, fireproof, stell curtain between the Synagogue and the Assembly Hall of the Community Center Building. On the High Holidays this curtain will be raised thus extending the Auditorium of the Temple and increasing the seating capacity to 4,600. There will be balconies accommodating 500 persons. A memorial chapel and library are planned. The Community Center Building will contain a fully equipped gymnasium.

The project is to be financed by contributions from the membership. One member, W. B. Frankenstein, retired real estate operator, has contributed $100,000.

The new Temple Sholom will be the fifth Temple to be constructed by this congregation. When the congregation was founded in 1867, it erected its first House of Worship at Superior and Wells Streets. This was destroyed by the fire of 1871. The second structure was erected at Rush and Walton Streets and was dedicated in the year 1884. The third structure was erected at La Salle and Goethe Streets and dedicated in the year 1883. The fourth was erected at Grace Street and Pine Grove Avenue and dedicated in the year 1911.

The rabbi of the congregation is Doctor Abram Hirschberg who has served the congregation for the past 28 years. The President of the Congregation is Benjamin M. Engelhard.

It is planned to have the new structure ready for occupancy by the Fall of 1927.