Authorities Trail Offenders; Take Drastic Measures (Jewish Telegraphic Agency)
The influence of the peasant element now employed in Russian cities is responsible for the anti-Semitic agitation which recently came to the fore in Soviet operated factories in White Russia.
This is the cencensus of opinion of Jewish and non-Jewish workers, brought out in an investigation made by the correspondent of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. These newly urbanized elements, it is stated, are under the influence of the Kulaks, the wealthier peasants who are in opposition to the recently formulated plans of the Soviet government with regard to agriculture.
Additional anti-Semitic occurrences are reported in the workers’ paper, published in the leather factory, “Bolshevik.” Three workers in the factory recently poured hot lime on a Jewish fellow worker.
In a letter to the editor of the paper, a woman worker confessed that she used the term “Zhid” in referring to a Jewish worker, but that she did not know it was an insulting term. In her letter she promises not to repeat the term.
In Koydanovo, hooligans who attacked a local Jewish resident, Soloveitchik, shouting “Kill the Jews,” were sentenced to ten months imprisonment.
Anti-Jewish discriminations reported in the Chetchersk school are being investigated by the school authorities.
In Zembine, district of Borisoy, traders inaugurated an anti-Semitic campaign under the slogan “Kill the Jews.” Several of the agitators were arrested but escaped from prison. In the same town, a worker, Simanowitch, was arrested for invading a meeting of Jewish artisans, breaking the windows.
The Communist party in Mohilev voted to punish those guilty of anti-Semitism in the factory Ilitch. A strict reprimand was given the factory committee for failure to take measures against the hooligans.
The trial of ten anti-Semitic hooligans charged with attacking the Jewish colony, Alekseyevka at Horodetz, district of Bobruisk, was opened here. Among the defendants is the head of the town Soviet in Horodetz and two policemen who are charged with failure to take action in defense of the Jewish colonists. Fifteen witnesses were called.
Six hooligans entered the home of a Jewish blacksmith in Bobruisk during his absence. They broke the windows and destroyed the furniture. The wife of the blacksmith was beaten by the invaders.
Returning while the hooligans were still in his home, the blacksmith effected their arrest.
An investigation of anti-Semitic occurrences at the university buildings now under construction near Minsk was concluded. Six persons will be tried for beating Jewish workers and non-Jews who defended them. The court classified the offense as a counter revolutionary act.
An investigation is being conducted in the school at Bobre where Jewish children were expelled.
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.
