Statistics on Jewish Suicides Published

(Jewish Telegraphic Agency)

The Statistical Section of the Jewish Scientific Institute here has just issued figures giving the proportion of suicides among Jews.

In the year 1925, it states, the number of suicides for every hundred thousand Jews in Berlin was 68, in Budapest 48, in Vienna 45, in Warsaw, where the economic crisis caused an increase in the number of suicides, seventeen, and in Lodz 7 were recorded.

The number of Jewish suicides in Berlin was larger than the number of non-Jewish suicides. In 1925 there were 15 suicides for every hundred thousand Protestants and 32 suicides for every hundred thousand Countries while there were 68 suicides for every hundred thousand Jews.

The number of suicides among the Jews of Berlin has been increasing steadily since 1912. In 1922 there were 61 Jewish suisides in Berlin, in 1923 72, in 1924 96, and in 1925 117. In 1925 there were 215 Jewish suicides in the whole of Prussia, and 17 of these were in Berlin, which has 13 per cent, of the Jewish population of the country.

Hospitals and other public institutions, provided they accept the conditions laid down, will eventually receive the bulk of the estate of Henry Sterne, formerly known as Jacob Stern, who died Oct. 2, under the terms of his will flied for probate in the Surrogates’ Court.

The will establishes two trust funds of $200,000 each, one for his sister, Ida Sterne, and one for an old employe, Lottie K. Ziller, now of Munich, Germany, Upon their deaths the principal is to be divided into seven parts: for the Monreclore Hospital, Home for Hebrew infants, Educational Alliance Hebrew Technical Institute. United Hebrew Charities, and the Hospital for Joint Diseases, all of New York, and the Sanatorium for Hebrew Children at Rockaway Park, N. Y. These bequests, however hinge upon the next clause in the will, which says:

“Each institution on case it is one in which physicians shall practice at any time) shall make a binding rule to the effect that any and all physicians at any time practicing for remuneration in the respective institutions shall be required to pay toward the maintenance and support of such institutions a sum of money equal to 10 per cent, of the gross fees which shall at any time he received he said physicians for services performed by them in said institutions.”

If the seven legatees falling under this contingency fail to agree to this their bequests are to go to the Salvation Army, which receives $100,000 outright.

Mme Rozika Schwimmer was denied citizenship in the Federal District Court Chicago. The petition was denied by Judge George B. Carpenter when Mme Schwimmer replied to his question as to whether she would kill an enemy soldier of the United States by declaring “I would not kill a man even if he tried to kill me.”

It was a negative answer to the question, “Would you hear arms for your country in case of war?” that caused Mme. Schwimmer’s application to be denied by the Naturalization Bureau. From that ruling she appealed to the District Court.

An appeal immediately was taken to the Circuit Court of Appeals.

Funeral services were held on Monday for the late Miss Judith Soils Cohen, well known short story writer and journalist. Funeral services were conducted from the home of her parents. Rabbi Leon H. Elmaleh, Rabbi Emeritus of Congregation Mikveh Israel officiated. Interment was at the Mount Sanai Cemetery.

Judith Solfs Cohen was a pioneer in Jewish Uterary work for the blind in this country.

For eleven years, she was editor of the women’s page of the Jewish Exponent. She was the author of numerous short stories and novelettes.