(By Our Paris Correspondent)
Nothing can be more indicative of the changes wrought by the World War and its aftermath in Eastern Europe than the conference of Russian monarchists which is now being held here at the Hotel Majestic, and perhaps nothing can better characterize the nature of this gathering of the men who once kept the Jews in Russia under their iron heel of oppression than the fact that a French Jew, without any moral or legal authority and speaking in no one’s name, greeted the conference–in behalf of France! This, when it is pointed out that the French monarchists, followers of Leon Daudet and Charles Maurras, did not take the trouble to present their greetings, is illuminating.”
The Jew who took it upon himself to speak to the Russian monarchists in the name of France is one Ehrlich, who was elected in 1919 on the Nationalist-block list as one of the Parliamentary deputies from Paris. He is no longer a deputy today, holding merely an office in the city magistracy. But he still puts on the airs of an important personage. Speaking before the monarchist conference at yesterday’s session, Ehrlich declared: “If I have taken the liberty to address you, it is only because I, a Frenchman, regard it an injustice that here in Paris, in whose defense so much Russian blood was spilled, the voice of a French citizen should not resound in greeting to the great Russian nation. …I fought unto the end against the recognition of Soviet Russia by France, and I am proud of it. I mention this so that you may know that you need fear no one. Here, under the protection of the French and the Russian flags, you must unite to rebuild the great country of Russia.”
This bold statement was not the only Jewish voice at the monarchist gathering. There were also greetings from the “Fatherlandish Union of Russian Jews Abroad.” If this greeting was as unauthorized and irresponsible as that of Ehrlich it was, however, more pathetic. This small, unknown group of Jews still believes in the possibility of a monarchist restoration, and hopes for it–hopes for a return to power of those men who always regarded the Jews as pariahs, drove Russian Jewry into the degrading “pales of settlement” and cold bloodedly enacted the Czaristic policy of anti-Jewish pogroms.
It must be emphasized that among those who signed the greeting of the “Fatherlandish Union” there are not to be found any representative or even well known Jews. An idea of the type of Jew who is associated with this organization can be obtained from the fact that one of them, Bickerman, announced his belief some 20 years ago that the Jews in Russia should assimilate in the name of Socialism. Now he has turned monarchist and greets the Czarist conference.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
