Five more Jews have been condemned to death in the Soviet Union recently for “economic crimes,” according to reports made public in Soviet newspapers arriving here today.
Two of the death sentences were meted out to Jews after a trial in Odessa, where two other Jews were given heavy prison sentences. This report was printed in Pravda Ukrainy official organ of the Ukrainian Communist Party. The June 12 issue of that newspaper, reaching here today, lists the condemned as Binyamin A. Gulko and Moshe A. Fuks. The newspaper reported that an eight-year prison sentence was given by the same court to Betya B. Rothstein, and a five-year sentence was imposed on Tzila G. Lapidus. All four had been accused, the Communist newspaper stated, of “dealing in foreign currency.”
Three other Jews were condemned to death after a trial at Dniepropetrovsk, which is also in the Ukraine. The men condemned there, according to a Moscow dispatch, were N. Scachevsky, I. Stavisky and L. Kocher. All three have already been executed, the Moscow report stated. At least four Jews had previously been sentenced to death in Moscow.
(In New York, a Moscow dispatch to the Herald Tribune today reported that 18 persons, at least five of whom have Jewish names, are currently on trial for “economic crimes” in Minsk. Six of the 18 were named, and at least five of these six are believed to be Jewish. They were denounced in the White Russian press as “rascals, rogues, thieves, bribers, speculators.” The is named are Michael Bursak, allegedly leader of the group, Nathan Friedman, Shaim Heiger, Meir Wilensky, Zola Murokh and Zalya Friedman.)
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.
