Old News Articles about Wysokie-Litewskie - Sectarian Confrontation in the Synagogue

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Old News Articles about Wysokie-Litewskie

Sectarian Confrontation in the Synagogue
In the newspaper, Hamelitz, 17.10.1882:

Sectarian Violence
By permission of the Historical Jewish Press

Visoki-Litovsk (district Vilna) - In the ancient synagogue called Old Wall some of the men of the congregation came into the women's section to read from the Torah scroll on the day of Simkhat Torah. Some of our own brothers – a mob – came and hit them hard, and if not for the pristav, God knows how many would have been killed. The pristav wrote a protocol which was signed by witnesses and the case would be brought before the justice of peace.

[reporter's byline] M. V----ki

Translator's Notes: District Vilna: This is a unique assignment of Wysokie Litewskie to very distant Vilna (Vilnius), seemingly an error , probably made in the editoral process, as the author/correspondent would certainly know the location. Simkhat Torah: A holiday marking the end of the yearly cycle of Torah readings. Pristav: police commissioner in Czarist Russia. Protocol: a document of record. M. V----ki: Probably the reporter was Markil Varshavsky, who submitted other items from Wysokie Litewskie over the years, e.g. Hamelitz 25.4.1884.

Note the similiarity to sectarian clashes in/near Orthodox areas in modern Israel.

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