The anti-Semitic attitude of many workers was revealed during city-wide meetings protesting against the arrest of the Russian worker Trofimov, who killed his Jewish fellow worker Bolsheminikov in a Soviet factory in Pskov.
In the Leningrad shoe factory, Skorochod, a vote was taken among the workers on the Trofimov case. A resolution was introduced denouncing Trofimov for his act. The resolution was defeated by a vote of 16 to 14, with 20 refraining from voting.
During the meeting many workers shouted “Zhid” (Jew), and “Death to the Jews.” The same attitude was manifested in several other factories.
In one factory a young woman worker rose to defend the Jewish workers. She was shouted down by the workers, who called her a Jewess. When they learned that she was not Jewish, they declared: “We’ll make it hot for her for defending the Jews.”
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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.
