Jews throughout the world were profoundly shocked today as news of the murder of Dr. Chaim Arlosoroff, thirty-five-year-old head of the political department and member of the Palestine Executive of the Jewish Agency for Palestine, in Tel-Aviv last night, became generally known. Messages of condolences were being received here from Jews and non-Jews in all parts of the world, describing the death of the brilliant young Zionist labor leader as an irreparable loss to the movement to establish a Jewish national home in Palestine and the greatest tragedy that has befallen this country since the Arab-Jewish disturbances in 1929. Dr. Arlosoroff was shot and killed by two unknown assailants last night as he was walking with his wife near the Moslem cemetery. They had left the Kaetedan, a pension on Yarkon Street, where they had been spending the week-end following Dr. Arlosoroff’s return from Europe and were near the old cemetery when two strangers asked Dr. Arlosoroff, in Hebrew, what time it was. He replied it was eleven o’clock.
Thereupon, two shots were fired from a revolver, and Arlosoroff fell. The assassins escaped. Two Jewish youths, some distance away, heard Mrs. Arlosoroff’s cries and rushed to the scene. They took the wounded man to the Hadassah hospital, where he died while surgeons were preparing to operate in a desperate attempt to save his life.
WERE BEING FOLLOWED
Mrs. Arlosoroff, five minutes before the shooting took place, had warned her husband that they were being followed but he ignored the warning, declaring he did not care.
Government police officials announced that they had begun an intensive investigation. A reward of fifteen hundred pounds, one thousand of which was contributed by the Jewish Agency, was offered for the capture of the murderers.
The Acting Chief Secretary of the Palestine Government, receiving the press this morning, expressed his abhorrence at the “ghastly crime”, and said no arrests had yet been made in the case. Earlier reports were to the effect that several men had been taken into custody by the police but that their nationalities or names had not been disclosed.
The High Commissioner, Sir Arthur Grenfell Wauchope, received Dr. Maurice B. Hexter, American member of the Palestine Executive of the Jewish Agency, this afternoon and expressed his deep sorrow at Dr. Arlosoroff’s death.
FUNERAL THIS MORNING
He instructed all members of the Government executive council and the heads of all departments to attend the funeral which will be held tomorrow at eleven o’clock.
A general cessation of all Jewish work and the closing of schools as
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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.
