In one of his first acts as President, Zalman Shazar reduced today the life sentences of two Israelis convicted in the murder of Dr. Rudolf Kastner, and commuted the sentence to the young kidnaper of Yoselle Schumacher.
Zev Eckstein and Josef Menkes, convicted in 1957 and given life sentences in the murder of Dr. Kastner, had their terms reduced to 10 years each. Dan Shemer, serving a lesser sentence for implication in the same crime, will be released on the eve of Shavuot, next Tuesday, Ecksetin and Menkes will be eligible for release next November 6 if the customary sentence reductions for good behavior are applied. Kastner was the center of a political controversy arising from his activities as a leader of the Hungarian Jewish community under the Nazi annihilation program.
Shalom Shtarkes, uncle of Yoselle Schumacher, was sentenced last January to three years’ imprisonment on conviction of kidnaping his nephew in one of Israel’s most celebrated religious conflict cases. He was also sentenced to two years’ imprisonment for perjury. The uncle also will be released on Chavuot Eve.
Yoselle, whose disappearance for two years stirred a search on three continents, was finally found by United States Secret Service operatives in the home of a Brooklyn rabbi last summer. Shtarkes, who went to England after the boy’s disappearance, was extradited to Israel for trial.
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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.
