An attack by an anti-Semitic group on a Jewish institution led to the wounding of one of the members of the anti-Semitic gang, the beating up by incensed Jews of another member, and to the arrest of one Jew by the police.
The attack took place at Lomas del Palomar, a suburb of this capital, while a social function was under way at the local Jewish center, known as Circulo Israelita Alberto Gerchunoff. A group of young anti-Semites attacked the party and ripped off the center’s walls the name-plate of the Jewish institution.
Defending themselves against the attack, Jews in the center fought back. They captured one of the attackers, Orlando Tedeschi, and handed him over to the local police. During the fracas, someone fired a shot. One of the alleged Nazi attackers, named Barbieri, was wounded.
The local police authorities freed Tedeschi, and, instead of probing into the nature of the anti-Semitic attack, detained Bernardo P. Finkelstein, one of the Jews at the scene, and charged him with beating Tedeschi. The police refused to probe the event further, attributing the clash merely to “a group of unidentified hoodlums.” The police also refused to accept the complaint of the Jewish center.
The action of the police provoked protest on the part of the Jews who witnessed the clash. They charged that the police “turned the complainant into the accused party.” DAIA, the central organization of Argentine Jewry, has notified Federal police authorities, insisting that the local police in the suburb be ordered to act immediately against the anti-Semitic aggressors.
(Throughout the spate of anti-Semitic manifestations, this summer, charges have been made that Federal police officials have been lenient in regard to the anti-Semites. Although the Government has denounced the anti-Semitic attacks, it has been claimed in Argentina by non-Jews as well as by Jewish leaders, that the Federal police had been infiltrated by elements tolerant of anti-Semitism.)
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.
