Norwich bulletin. [volume] (Norwich, Conn.) 1895-2011, 1911-05-19
Massacre Of
Jews Feared
BECAUSE OF DISCOVERY OF DEAD
BODY OF BOY.
A CRY OF RITUAL MURDER"
Jewish Lawyer Says the so-caIIsd
"RituaIistic Murders" Are an Easter
myth-Many Times Nc Murder Is
Committed.

st. Petersburg, May 1s-The seri-
GUS situation which has arien from
the threatened massacre of Jews at
Kiev, since the discovery of the body
of a boy under such circumstances as
TO stir up the cry of a ritual murder
has aroused the authorities in their
endeavors to solve the mystery of the
boys death. In the meantime even
the anti-Jewfsh newspapers admit
that the reports on which the agfta-
tfon is based for the most part are
not worthy of credence.
History of RituaIistic Murders.
In an interview today NJ Sliosborg.
a leading Jewish lawyer, exhaustively
reviewed the history of the question
of rituaistic murder as contained in
the records of the courts of Russia
and abroad. He said that hardly a
year passes without a revival of the
|. old myth about the Easter time rela-
tive to the temporary disappearance
of boy or a girl relative to some un-
traced murder. The ignorant among
the population become excited and
their excitement lasts until the case is
cleared up.
Often No Murder Case.
In a majority of cases it was shown
that no murder had been committed,
and in the remainder of the cases the
murder was traced to the culpable
agents, and it was proved that Jews
had no connection whatever with these
cases. Only two cases of alleged rit-
ua1 murder in the past forty years,
said NJ. Sliosborg, warranted an in
vestigation by the courts, and in both
cases the verdict was acquittal for tho
adherents OF the Jewish faith who had
been placed under arrest.
Sect Of ZeaIots Existed.
The first of these cases was tried at
kutais Transcaucasia in 1879 and the
other at Wilma in 1902. In the Kutats
case the court acquitted the defend
ants of the murder of a girl On that
occasion experts, such as Professor
| Khvolson, said there could be no ques-
| ton of the existence of a sect Of
zealots to whom ritualistic murders
may be ascribed. But for a long time
| after the conclusion of the case, the
accusation against the Jews was not
renewed, because the whole subject
was thoroughly threshed out and con-
| demned by the court and public opin-
/ ion.
Acquitted in wilma Affair.
| The Wilma affair, which occurred In
| 1902. had to do with the alleged at
| temp to murder a woman domestic A
/ her throat but the woman was res
| cued by persons. who heard her
| screa ming. There was q scratch on
| the woman's throat, and at the court
investigation government medical asI-
| thorities testified that it could have
| beeen inflicted by herself or by 9TH
ers, and was probably for the purpose
| of Stimulating attempted murder. The
| Jury acquitted the accused.
Results in other Cases.
] In other cases a judicial inquiry was
begun under the supposition of rituel-
| istic murder, but in the early stages
| before the cases were brought up for
an examination by the court the sup
| position was discarded on ascertain
ment of the facts.
| IDIOTS Story Kept Man in Jail.
| Another case that attracted some
attention in 1903-1S04 occurred in the
| Wilma district. A forest guards baby
was killed An idiot sister of the child
| said that she had observed a Jew or
| whom she gave a partial identification,
| prowling about the house. A jewish
| suspect was arrested and kept in JAN
| for eight months on the strength of
| the girls story. Inquiry ultimately
1 proved that the idiot sister killed the
| baby to free herself from the care Of
| nursing.
/ No Jew Implicated in Recent Murder.
M. S1iosborg said that in the present
| case, the killing of the boy Yus-
| chinsky, no Information was available.
| The investigation, he declared, had
| yielded no results or the results were
not ready for publication. All that
| could be said, he continued, WAS that
/ no Jew had yet been arrested or was
| implicated in this affair:
| Body Found in Cave.
| It was suspected, when the body az
| Yuschinsky was found in a cave close
/ to the Jewish quarter, that the, Jew
| ish sect Hassides, who are alleged to
| forbid the burial of ritualistic victims,
| may have had some knowledge of the
| case. With respect to the Hassides,
| NJ Sliosbork said that the Jews of
| Russia are divided into tive classes,
| the Hassides, meaning pious, and the
| Misnakdin, meaning opponents. The
| use of blood is equally abhorrent to
| both denominations.
$4,000 PAID FOR