White Russians Suspected of Murder of President of Jewish Community of Harbin

The suspicion is gaining ground that White Russian Emigrants are responsible for the kidnapping and murder of Meir Koffman, ex-president of the Jewish Community of Harbin. Details of the incident, which profoundly shocked the entire Harbin Jewry, have now been revealed by the Japanese paper, “Harbinskoye Wremys,” published by White Russian emigrants.

The report discloses that even after Koffman had succumbed to the injuries which he had received at the hands of the brigands, the kidnappers nevertheless continued their negotiations with his family in an effort to obtain a ransom, while the dessicated body of Koffman was being used to manure their fields. The efforts of the bandits to wrest a ransom from the relatives, however, proved unavailing owing to their inability to produce any letters in the writing of the dead man.

The entire Jewish population of Harbin is panic-stricken. The fear of a similar fate falling to their lot, however, prevents them from pressing their claims for justice. Another Jew, a young man of the name of J. Sherel, was kidnapped by Russian bandits while leaving the synagogue on Yom Kippur night, and although several months have elapsed since that time no word of his fate has been ascertained.