Saturday, April 5, 2014

'This Man had Murdered Me.'

Ha'aretz,, Dec. 12th,  1932, p. 1. See below for translation.

Raafi Perstiz was mentioned in this blog many times. He came from a family which had several prominent members. His mother grandmotherShoshana Persitz (1892-1969) was a prominent Zionist activist and educator, which, inter alia, was a member of the Israeli Parliament (Knesset) in the first three Paeliaments, and won the Israel Prize for education.

Shoshana Persitz [or Parsitz]. Source: Wikipedia.

His great-grandfather -- Shoshana's father -- was Hillel Zlatopolsky, the founder of Keren Hayesod, philanthropist, author, and much more. When Zlatopolsky was assassinated in Paris in 1932, this was front-page news throughout the Jewish world -- including in Palestine, where Ha'aretz (above) put the news on its front page, and added a large death notice on the same page, noting that "Our dear father, Mr. Hillel Zlatopolsky, passed away in Paris on Sunday, 12 Kislev [Of the Hebrew year 5693, i.e., Dec. 11th, 1932 - A.P.]", signed by "Shoshana Persitz and her family".

Zlatopolsky was assassinated by a disgruntled employee, Leon Laval, who committed suicide. Doar Ha'Yom reported, two days later (Dec. 15th, 1932), also on the first page, that the murder scene was especially dramatic: after hearing shots from his office, the police was called, finding the shooter lying on the floor after having shot himself, and Zlatopolsky, 'deathly pale', whispering that 'this man had murdered me, shot me in the stomach' and asking the police to inform (inter alia) his son.

Edited 19/8/2015: as Avner Falk notifies me, Shoshana Persitz was Raafi Persitz's grandmother, not his motherHer son Akiva (1912-1984) was his father. 

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