(Jewish Telegraphic Agency)
The rarity of suicide among Jews was commented on here by the City of London Coroner, Dr. Frederick Joseph Waldo, on the occasion of an inquest conducted by him into the suicide of Sophie Hart.
Dr. Waldo declared that in all the years of his practice he had not come across a single case of a Jewish suicide. Sophie Hart’s suicide is the first act of this kind among the Jews of London in the last twenty-five years.
“History shows,” Dr. Waldo observed, “that until the time of the dispersion of the Jews from Palestine there are only ten recorded cases of suicide among the Jews. After their return from Babylon, suicide became more frequent among the Jews. The Old and New Testaments contain only four cases of Jewish suicides. We find three cases in the Old Testament, King Saul, his swordbearer and a Jew who, being pressed, barricaded his house and burned himself to death. The New Testament contains the case of Judas. Other instances of suicide in the New Testament are not of Jews,” the Coroner stated.
A poetry contest is announced by the Independent Order B’rith Sholom. The contest to be known as the Samuel Morris Memorial Poetry Contest, is open to everyone. Babette Deutsch, Felix Gerson and Walter Hart Blumenthal are the judges.
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.
