ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes the book Di geshikhte fun di tsvey Idishe farreter fun Ostrovtse: di brider Avraham un Leybush Zeyfman: der mishpet fun di ferreter in Nyu York: di bavayzn fun lebedige eydes [The Account of the Two Jewish Traitors from Ostrowiec: The Brothers Avraham and Leybush Zeyfman: The Trial of the Traitors in New York: The Proofs of Living Witnesses] (1948), published by the Ostrowiec Relief Committee in New York mutual aid society. The publication is an unofficial legal transcript of an ad-hoc Jewish honor court held in NYC in 1947. The criminal tribunal found the accused: brothers, Avraham and Leybush Zeyfman, both of whom had served in the Ostrowiec ghetto’s administration, guilty of Nazi collaboration. Their punishment was deemed herem (excommunication). Yet, journalist Chaim Lieberman (1889–1963), who disagreed with this verdict, repeatedly defended the Zeyfman brothers in a series of articles in the Forverts [Jewish Daily Forward] devoted to their case.
