Rabbi Schneersohn, Rabbi Barishansky and other prominent Jewish clergymen of the Homel district will be put on trial for assuming the “prerogative of State Courts” in advising Jewish litigants to have recourse in Jewish ritual courts of law, according to an announcement made by the Chief Justice Druginsky of Homel.
Announcement of the impending arrest and trial of Jewish clericals of the district was made during the trial of Rabbi Schneersohn who is 70 years old. Contending that so-called Jewish courts are part of the traditional function of the rabbi, Rabbi Sneersohn stated he and all other rabbis of Homel and other parts always had exercised the prerogative uninterruptedly.
Thereupon Judge Druginsky declared that in view of this statement Rabbi Schneorsohn’s trial will be postponed and proceedings instituted for the same offense against all rabbis of the Homel district.
Rabbi Barishansky who has already served 7 months’ imprisonment for attacking in his speeches the Jewish section of the Communist Party, declared to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency he was untroubled by the possibility of further imprisonment for this offense. He said he regretted only that it may delay his departure to Palestine where he intends to settle and where, reports have it, he is to become Chief Rabbi of Jaffa.
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.
