Special squads of police and detectives were pursuing a number of clues today in an effort to trace the men who beat to death a 55-year old Jew, Rabbi Bernard Eisdorfer, a prominent disciple of the Satmar Rebbe. At the same time, under orders of Mayor Robert F. Wagner and City Commissioner of Investigation Louis I. Kaplan, a probe was under way of all facets of the crime and its aftermaths, including an investigation as to the type of action taken either by the police or the city hospitals after Rabbi Eisdorfer had been found fatally injured.
According to police, two youths aged between 17 and 20, are being sought in connection with the crime. The men had beaten Rabbi Eisdorfer last Monday night and robbed hin of a large sum of money, reportedly $2,000, which he was carrying as donations to several ye shivot in honor of the forthcoming celebration of Simchat Torah. He died four days later. A refugee from Czechoslovakia who had received rabbinical ordination as a youth, Rabbi Eisdorfer was a successful textile merchant.
In the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, where thousands of Satmar adherents live, the usual Simchat Torah celebrations today were tinged with sorrow among many Hassidim belonging not only to the Satmar group but also to other Hassidic factions. There was also much bitterness, many Jews in Brooklyn complaining that they have not been receiving sufficient police protection.
Ten thousand Jews who attended funeral services for the late Rabbi Eisdorfer Friday carried large banners blaming police and other city officials for failing to give the residents of the deteriorated area sufficient protection against hooligans.
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.
