(Jewish Telegraphic Agency)
The governmental and judicial authorities of Moscow have been greatly aroused over the case of anti-Jewish terror which has held the attention of the Moscow public for the past several months.
The case concerned the brutal mistreatment by a group of Russians, sons of formerly prominent merchant families, of Moses Kaufman, aged 60, and his family consisting of his wife and two daughters. The hooligans, who were neighbors of the Kaufman family at No. 18a First Vozdvizhenski Lane, Moscow, a stone’s throw from the police station, two blocks from the prosecuting attorney’s office and ten minutes ride from the Supreme Court, tortured the Jewish family during the months of April and May by beating the old man every evening and threatening to assault the young girls. So terrorized was the old Kaufman that he dared not complain to the authorities. having been warned that if he did so, he would be killed.
Information was given to the authorities by a Christian neighbor, following a cruel scene enacted at night at No. 18a. On the basis of these charges, the Ogpu, secret police, arrested Andrey Lubimoff, Semion Lichomanoff and Stephen Golovkin. They were tried on June 30 by a lower court and given the following sentences: Lubimoff, six months in jail; Lichomanoff and Golovkin, 9 months. Two more neighbors, Jelesnoff and Tchurakoff will also be tried for instigating the attacks, it was declared.
The case attracted wide attention and was discussed in a special article in the government organ, Pravda. Following the publication of the verdict the Komsomolskaya Pravda, Communist youth organ, protested against the mild sentence and demanded that the case be appealed to a higher court, where the sentence should be increased.
“The edict is too mild and we demand that the higher court immediately increase the sentences,” the paper wrote. The paper added that the verdict caused excitement in many factories, where severer punishment was expected.
Action on the matter was immediate ly taken by the district court which ordered a retrial of the three accused, finding the sentence too mild. The court declared that the accused were guilty not only of hooliganism for which they were sentenced, But of anti-Semitism and they therefore dedeserve severer punishment.
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.
