(Jewish Telegraphic Agency)
The industrial guild bill, introduced by the previous government into the Polish Sejm, was withdrawn from the legislative body by the Bartel government.
The industrial guild bill, which was strenuously opposed by the Club of Jewish Deputies, aimed at creating a position of disadvantage for Jewish artisans and workers and was considered one of the measures of the anti-Semitic boycott policy to widen the process of pauperizing the Jewish population in Poland.
According to the bill, artisans and craftsmen would be permitted to engage in their crafts only if they had a certificate of membership in the guild of their craft. The artisan guilds in the Republic of Poland do not admit Jews to membership. The bill would thus place a large body of Jewish artisans outside of the industries as the recently organized Jewish societies of craftsmen have not the same status as the guilds.
At a conference of Jewish artisans held in February, 1925, a protest against the measure that all artisans in the Polish Republic be compelled to belong to the professional guilds (Cechs) was adopted.
The resolution against the measure pointed out that if this bill became a law, the Jews would be practically barred from the crafts because of the tradition of the Polish guilds not to admit Jews as members and not to issue to them the certificates which are equivalent to diplomas. The conference demanded that for the purpose of stabilization, the Jewish Artisans’ Associations be recognized by the authorities as guilds.
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.
