Jewish Post, Indianapolis, Marion County, 17 February 1956 — Page 9

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Friday, Feb. 17, 1956

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ARABS BLAMED AT FIRST How Chicago Ballistics Expert Helps Solve Sensational Murder Which Stirred Israel By LEO H El MAN National Jewish Post Correspondent First Inspector Bill Shapira. the chief ballistics expert of the Chicago police department, now visiting Israel, has helped the Israeli police and investigators solve the country’s most sensational murder mystery in recent years—the Malkiman murder. Thirty-nine-year-old Ben-Ami Malkiman, an idealistic agricultural instructor who volunteered

to help the new immigrants from North Africa to settle in the Negev, did not return home to his wife and children for several nights. At first, the wife did not worry, for she knew her husband stayed overnight at various immigrant villages and kibbutzim where his devoted w r ork took him. After a couple of days, however, she started making inquiries at the local police precinct. In the meantime, bus drivers on the Negev Bus Lines reported to the police that they noticed a pickup truck in an empty plowed field some six hundred feet from the main road and about four miles from the Egyp-tian-held Gaza border. ' The bus drivers thought that the pickup belonged to one of the kibbutzim which worked the field, but after they saw it standing for several days, they decided to notify the police. A police jeep which drove out to the spot found Malkiman sprawled dead in the pickup’s cabin, a bullet hole in his drain and the windscreen^ pierced with several bullets. The homicide squad was called out and the police doctor established that Malkiman had been dead fo r at least three days. SINCE THE MURDER happened so near to the Egyptian border, in a spot notorious in the past for Arab ambushes, the police first assumed that Arabs murdered Malkiman. The newspapers began demanding punitive action against the Egyptians, when into the picture stepped First Inspector Shikmoni, tough boss of the Tel Aviv homicide squad and his Jewish friend from the States, First Inspector Shapira, from Chicago. Shikmoni concentrated on the external evidence, while Shapira went straight to his specialty— ballistics. Within one day, the two officers made public their findings: Malkiman was not murderer by the Arabs, but by Jews who were passengers in his pickup. Shikmoni’s evidence: nothing was robbed from the pickup, not even the money or the food. A big chunk of bread was found in the pickup’s body, and the bread was of the type issued to the new immigrants free of charge. Malkiman’s body was left undisturbed after the fatal shot, while it is certain that the Arabs would have turned him over to look through his pockets after murdering him. Shapira’s evidence: Malkiman was killed by rifle bullets, and rifles are, to be sure, the favorite Arab murder weapon, but the shots were fired from inside the pickup, not from the outside, so that the killer or killers could not have been Arabs. In addition, said ballistics expert Bill Shapira, the bullets were of a type used in Israel. While there were no doubt bullets of the same type are used by the Arabs as well, the evidence indi-

cated that Malkiman’s murder was an inside job. DETECTIVES went to all the bakeries and bread-supply organizations in the Negev and finally found the bakery which baked the chunk of bread found in the pickup. “We supply bread of this type to the immigrant mabara (camp) at Ashkelon,” said the bakery. On the same day, a bus inspector entered the Beersheba Police headquarters and declared that he saw two young khakidressed Jewish boys, one of them carrying a rifle and an ammunition belt, beating the daylights out of a third Jewish boy, who, they said, was an Arab spy. After the bus inspector convinced them that the boy they w*ere beating up only looked like an Arab and could not speal^ Hebrew* because he was a recent immigrant from Africa, they were given a lift by a pickup which looked like Malkiman’s. A search for all recent immigrants beaten up with rifle butts disclosed a young mentally defective man. who did not w 7 ant to talk to anyone but his mother. The mother told police that the son said he was beaten up by a guard from Kissufim. Kissufim is a kibbutz on the border, and the detectives w r ent there. The kibbutz people said that all their rifles were accounted for except for one taken along by one of their guards, a 15-year-old Iraqi-bom boy, wLose parents lived at the Ashkelon mabara. The next day, the rifle w^as found in a dingy hut occupied by .the Kuku family which came from Iraq six years ago. The rifle’s owner, a 15-year-old youth/ denied, however, being anywhere near the place w T here Malkiman was murdered, and had witnesses to support his alibi. BILL SHAPIRA, however, gave his rifle a ballistics test and declared it was the murder weapon. The youth broke down and confessed that he shot Malkiman because the latter refused to take him to Kibbutz Kissufim and told him that hitchhikers could not order the lift-givers as if they were taxi drivers. A medical examination of young Kuku has established a lack of mental balance and an ingrown streak of sadism and cruelty. He was confined to the Geha Mental Asylum near Petach Tikvah. He could not have been tried for the murder anyway, being under 16. The murder, however, raised the entire problem of giving arms to minors, a practice common now in Israel’s border settlements. The settlements, pressed hard for working hands and guards against the unceasing Arab attacks and depredations, have been arming everybody able to lift a rifle, and this includes 14-year-old boys and girls, who have been taught how

Former Cop Hailed On 86th Birthday Portland, Maine, Police Capt. Harold K. Maguire, second left, congratulates Simon Rubinoff, former patrolman, on his 86th birthday at a party in the Jewish Home for the Aged,

weekly to readers who sub- Patrolmen Patrick J. Norton, left, and William Nelson Jr., mit the best letter on the right, and Maguire were fellow* rookies of Rubinoff.

Win $5.00

The Post will pay $5.00

“most unusual incident that ever happened to me.” There is no limitation on space, but shorter letters will be given preferred consideration. Address your entries to “Unusual Incident Contest,” The National Jewish Post, P. O. Box 1633, Indianapolis, Indiana.

Goldmann Tells Plans For World Assembly JERUSALEM (NJP)-His plan for convening a world Jewish assembly, made up of Zionists and non-Zionists, was outlined here by Dr. Nahum Goldmann. The assembly would be composed of invited delegations from every nation where there is a Jewish community. The assembly would take a stand on vital problems of the moment, it was said.

to shoot as well as old folks and even w 7 omen in their first months of pregnancy. There is no other way of defending itself for a kibbutz, but weapons in the hands of minors are getting to be a danger.

BUDDIES REMEMBER COP ON BEAT 25 YEARS By BYRON J. ISRAELS ON Jewish Post Correspondent PORTLAND, Maine (NJP)—Simon Rubinoff, the first person of Jewish extraction to join the local police department, was honored on his 86th birthday recently by relatives and former fellow

policemen. Scene of the observance w*as the Jewish Home for the Aged where a captain and two patrolmen, all of whom were rookie cops with Rubinoff at the turn of the century, wished him well. Officials believe Rubinoff is the first Jew 7 to become a policeman in Maine. He retired from the force 20 years ago after serving for a quarter of a century. RUBINOFF, belying his age, appeared spry, happy and alert. He said he is proudest of his 12 grandchildren and 19—“or is it 20, I can’t keep track of them all”—great-grandchildren. He’s a master of six languages and during his active duty years he w 7 as much in demand and gained considerable repute as an interpreter for the department. He often w*as called into Municipal and Superior Courts to In the early 1900s he was a

question persons who spoke no English. familiar figure on Portland’s busy waterfront. HE WAS BORN in Poland and came to this city as a young man. He was in business for himself for some years and then was appointed to the Police Department in 1912. Among the vvell-w 7 ishers were veteran Police Capt. Harold K. Magpire and Patrolmen Patrick J. Norton and William Nelson. Also attending were three of Rubinoff’s children, Mi'S. Frank Waterhouse of West Paris; Mrs. Dora Lehrer of New* York City, and Maurice J. Rubinoff of Boston. He has two other children, Max Rubinoff of Brookline, Mass., and Mrs. Frances Pastor of Atlantic City, N. J.

Your Name Want to know what your name means? Address your question to Mr. Pearlroth, National Jewish Post, Box 1633, Indianapolis 6, Indiana. By. N. PEARLROTH-—I DEAR MR. PEARLROTH: I have been reading with interest your column. I would be delighted if you would tell me what the origin and meaning of my grandfather’s name is. The name is Sapoczinski—from Poland. — LEWIS GOLDMEER, Amsterdam, New York. SAPOCZINSKI (more correctly Sopoczynski) is a name of geographical origin. It is taken from the name of the town of Sopockinie in the district of Augustow 7 , Poland. The tow*n was formerly 80 per cent Jewish and specialized in the production of Kasza (Grits). Your ancestor who took this family name in 1804 may also have been employed in the local glass factory 7 or the lumber mill. The town was situated on the highway to Grodno. * • • DEAR MR. PEARLROTH: My parents emigrated here from a village, Radgoszcz, near Dabrowa, Austria, in the ’80’s. My father’s name is Feit. Does this name have any special origin?—ABRAHAM FEIT, Brooklyn, New York. FEIT is an evolution of the Hebrew name Hayim, meaning “Life.” This ancient Hebrew 7 name w 7 as latinized as “Vita” in the Middle Ages. German Jew’s who pronounced a “V” as if it were an “F,” garbled it into Feit and this became a family name because it had a faintly European flavor. Sometimes the name was stretched into Feitel. But Feitel also applies to Nathan and Shrage.

By SAMUEL DEUTSCH (Copyright. 1955, by Samuel Deutsch) OF ALL THE CITIES in Russia during the latter half of the 19th century, Berdychev had the largest percentage of Jews in relation to the non-Jewish population. The city contained 50,000 Jews out of a total population of 62,000! * * * BENIAMIN OF TUDELA was known as the Jewish Marco Polo! He spent his lifetime traveling and writing impressions of his travels. * * ♦ ALTHOUGH THE DOG is often mentioned in the Bible, the cat isn’t mentioned even once! • • • JUDAH B E N J A M I N, a successful Jewish lawyer who lived in Louisiana about 100 years ago, was probably the best known Jew 7 in the United States about the middle of the 19th century. He was offered the position of U.S. Supreme Court judge when he was only 37 years old! (He turned the job down!).