For a Messiah

Through the squalid streets of Zlatshev, a small Polish town near Lemberg. hurried excited Jews one day last month. They had heard--as had many a Jew throughout Galicia--of a wonderful thing that was happening at their synagog. Other Poles might call the Galician Jews vulgar and ignorant. But they had a saint, pious Pinchas Bloch. He was even now crouching on the synagog steps. Chanting psalms, clutching his long beard, he was praying God to send the Jewish people a Messiah. Until then, Pinchas Bloch would eat no food, move not from the synagog. The Zlatshev Jews prayed with him. whispering softly, watching and waiting. Thirteen days passed. Pinchas Bloch grew weaker, hoarser. He was taken to a hospital. That night he escaped, staggered through the dark streets, dragged himself to the synagog steps, wailing supplications. Next morning he was found dead.

No Messiah appeared. Instead, last week anti-Semitism in Eastern Europe broke out more fiercely than in many a year. In Vienna, Nazi and Jewish students had been punching each other's noses so regularly that the 300 U. S. students (50% Jews) appealed to the U. S. Minister and threatened to withdraw if disorder continued. In Warsaw the antiJewish students grew excited because it was the anniversary of the death, during a riot, of Stanislaw Waclawski a Christian student at the University of Vilna. ''Revenge yourselves on the Jews!" they cried. "They were responsible for Waclawski's death!" They fell to fighting, injured 25 Jews, trampled girl students. The trepidating rector had the University closed for three days. Rigid policing alone prevented disorder. Rioting broke out also in Breslau, Cracow, Posen, Lemberg.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.