The trial of Moritz Steinberger, a Jewish peddler charged with the alleged extraction of blood for ritual purposes from the arms of two Christian school girls has been set for October 20. The seventy Jews in the village of Novasimera, where the alleged extraction took place, are greatly worried in view of the fact that they live among 1,700 peasants. Their anxiety is spreading among the Jews of the entire district which numbers about a thousand families.
Although the local school teacher Aranka Szoeka, testified to having seen Steinberger cutting the girls’ arms and extracting their blood into a bottle, the correspondent of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, who visited the village, was informed by the regional school director that the teacher had testified against his advice and warning because the children’s injuries occurred six months ago from a broken window.
The two girls, aged eight and eleven respectively, admitted to the correspondent of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that the entire story was an invention. They said they had heard of such cases occurring and therefore gave that explanation of their injuries. In view of these admissions amazement is being expressed in Jewish Circles in Carpatho-Russia that the state attorney should have instituted a public trial without first having made an investigation. The charge against Steinberger is “for inflicting slight injuries.”
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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.
