The J.T.A. representative in Cluj, who visited the town of Joszashely, has found the Jewish population here in a state of indescribable panic over the blowing up of their synagogue. The whole of the interior of the synagogue building has been destroyed. The Ark of the Law, the Scrolls of the Law, the Reader’s desk, and the sats have all been blown to atoms. The only article which has remained is the clock, with the hands still pointing to the time of the explosion, when it stopped–11.8 p.m. The Jews of the town were sitting Shiva at the entrance of the synagogue, mourning. The synagogue, which was built only two years ago by the generosity of a Jew in the neighbourhood, Max Pollacsek, was the place of worship of the Jews not only of Joszashely, but also of the neighbouring village of Gurahoncz. For years, the Jewish populations of the district were without a proper place of worship, being too poor to erect a synagogue. The disaster which has robbed them now of their synagogue has therefore hit them harder than can be described.
“It was the most beautiful synagogue in the world”, said one greybeard to the J.T.A. representative. “It had no equal anywhere. In Joszashely and Gurahoncz there are together only about fifty or sixty Jewish families poor working people intellectuals of the district, in their branch of the Hackenkreuzler organization, having been insulting us and stirring up the peasants against us. But this outrage we did not expect.
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.
