Charging that anti-Semitic feeling and the influence of the Ku Klux Klan were making a mockery of the official investigation into the murder of Howard R.Rothenberg, seven years old, who was found strangled to death in a barn at Cedar Lawn, near Windham, N.Y., on August 29th last, Jonah J. Goldstein, attorney for the Boy’s parents, appealed to Governor Alfred E. Smith yesterday to order an independent inquiry into the case by the Attorney General.
“Since the cry ‘the Jews are after my blood’ was raised by Anna Sobin, sixteen years old, a Polish girl who was employed by the Rothenbergs as a servant, and who is a material witness in the case, the parents”, said Mr. Goldstein, “believe that the real issue in the case, the discovery and apprehension of the murderer, has been sidetracked”, and that anti-Jewish feeling, which he declared was rife in the community along with the prejudice in favor of the Ku Klux Klan, had supplanted it.
Edward W. Lackey, attorney for the family, and the dead child’s parents have all received letters signed Ku Klux Klan”, he continued, “warning them not to persist in their efforts to bring about the arrest of the murderer. Some of the letters to the family”, he said, “have advised them that if Jews don’t want their children murdered they had better keep out of this country.
“To me as a Jew”, said Mr. Goldstein, “the facts on the whole present an intolerable situation, and I propose to aid this family in any way that I can.
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.
