An original method in combating anti-Semitism among Soviet employees was used by the Moscow authorities.
A government employee, Vasily Shumov, was tried by the Soviet court on charges of anti-Semitic behavior and persecution of this Jewish neighbor, Rabinovitch. Over one thousand persons were in the courtroom, all of them employees of the Gorstorg, governmental department.
The proceedings lasted several hours and the defendant was sentenced to three years imprisonment.
When the judge pronounced sentence and the public applauded the decision, the court immediately declared that Shumov was wholly innocent and that the trial had been staged as a means of propaganda against anti-Semitism, which has lately begun to spread among the Gorstorg workers. Anti-Semitic slogans were posted in rooms where the workers meet and the authorities were unable to detect those responsible for this propaganda. In order to make an object lesson, they selected Vasily Shumov.
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.
