Economic Condition of Hundreds of Thousands of Jews in Poland Hopeless, Says “forward” Correspondent

The economic prospects of hundreds of thousands of Polish Jews are hopeless, declared Jacob Leszinski, writing from Warsaw, in a long article of his which appears in the New York “Forward” of February 4. Mr. Leszinski believes that the dire situation of Polish Jews today is caused by what he calls “national bolshevism,” by the fact that the government is taking over various enterprises which were formerly under private ownership and that in the process, Jewish workers are being expelled in the thousands from these enterprises and Christian workers take their place.

This is especially true of such industries as tobacco, alcohol, lumber and salt mines, in which industries a very large number of Jews were formerly employed and from which the Jews have been expelled since the government took them over, says Mr. Leszinski. Not only “white collar” jobs in government offices, but even common labor in government works is refused Jews, he declares. In his opinion, the Polish government is out to create an “economic ghetto” for the Jews there.

“Here is a small example of the city of Warsaw,” writes Mr. Leszinski. “During the year 1928 there were employed on the municipal trolley lines here 4,342 people, among them only 2 Jews, and for these 2 Jews the Bundist party in the City Council had to fight two years. In 1929, 1,500 workers were added, among them only 4 Jews! And that at a time when thousands of Jewish workers in Warsaw were without employment and were willing to do the hardest labor as long as they could earn their bread.

“But the shamelessness of the Warsaw anti-Semitic city government goes much further. In the water-works system there were in 1928, 1,857 employees, among them about a score of Jews. This year more than a thousand new workers were taken on and the few Jews were expelled! Altogether the city employees number more than 20,000, and among them are 50 Jews, a fourth of one percent, whereas Jews are in Warsaw a third of the population and bring in more than half of all the taxes!

“But when it comes to taxes, no pity is shown towards the Jew. This week such a case, for example, happened in Warsaw: The tax collector came to a widow and demanded of her a tax of 6 guldens—75 cents. Since the poor woman couldn’t pay this sum, he took away her bedding. The poor woman went out on the street and started crying. The neighbors, all poor people, then took up a collection among themselves and gave the tax collector his 75 cents, so that the widow could get back her bedding. That’s how taxes are being collected from Jews!

“I have before me a copy of a request from a Jewish woman storekeeper, Bruche Przekupnik of Biale, to the tax commission in Lublin. This is a document which it would be worth while showing the Polish Minister in Washington, who boasted not long ago before a delegation of the Polish-Jewish Federation in America that Jews have almost a paradise in Poland.

“Bruche Przekupnik writes that she is being asked to pay various taxes, up to 200 zlotys. The tax collector took away from her store 4 kilograms of rice, 4 kilograms of beans, 5 kilograms of barley, 2 kilograms of sugar and 50 cakes of clay. Her entire ‘store’ is worth a little more than 13 zlotys, one dollar and a half, while she is being asked to pay a tax of 200 zlotys!

“One of the worst orders, something which bears the greatest danger for the whole class of Jewish skilled workers, that is, for more than a third of the Jewish population, is the well-known ‘guild’ law. Special examinations for the title of ‘master’ are being held under such conditions that Jews have to fail in these tests, so that the Jewish apprentices should never be able to obtain the title of ‘master. The fact alone that the examinations are being held in Polish and by a majority of Polish examiners will most surely lead to a condition where thousands of older Jewish craftsmen, who know their trade much better than the examiners, will fail nevertheless.

“But even worse is the situation for the youth that is growing up. According to the law, every worker must during his apprenticeship also attend evening courses for the acquirement of a general and professional education. On the face of it, this would seem to be a very fine law, similar to the laws in all civilized countries. But for the Jews it is a death-blow. Throughout Poland such courses are now being attended by 92,000 apprentices, boys and girls. But only 3,000 of them, about 3 percent, are Jewish, whereas Jews make up more than half of all the skilled workers in Poland.

“In Warsaw alone these courses are attended by 11,000 young people—among them 327 Jews, that is, exactly 3 percent. One would imagine that Jews do not want to send their children to attend these courses. But anyone can understand that this is not the case. It is simply made impossible for Jews to send their children to attend these courses. The courses are given only in the Christian quarters. If a Jewish apprentice does happen to drift in there, his life is made so miserable that he has to run away. His hat and coat are hidden away, ink is spilled on his note-book, he is beaten, he is made fun of if he doesn’t answer so well in Polish.

“‘I haven’t enumerated everything here. About each point separately one could write a whole treatise. About the taxes alone a new Book of Lamentations could be written. For you can not meet one Jew in Poland who doesn’t groan under the yoke, who doesn’t tell how the taxes are choking him.

“One must remember that even today the richest people in Poland are the big landowners. Nevertheless all the landowners together brought the government in 1928 only 64 million zlotys in direct taxes, whereas trade and commerce brought it 350 million zlotys in direct taxes, besides income taxes. But besides the fact that agriculture brings the government one-sixth as much in taxes as trade and industry, it got back from the government in the form of loans and subsidies 470 million zlotys that year, at a time when city industries are treated by the government like step-children.

“Thus a double injustice is committed towards Jews. Agriculture gets the main support, the city population is being mulcted and its money given away to the village. Much more taxes are being taken from the city than from the village, but when it comes to loans the village again gets first place

“This national bolshevism which now reigns in Poland is much worse than the bolshevism of Soviet Russia, much worse because it separates the Jews economically, creates a mediaeval economic wall between the Jewish and non-Jewish populations, establishes a social and class ghetto instead of the political one. The Jewish population in Poland is being surrounded by economic iron walls which are more terrible than the mediaeval ghetto walls.

“This explains the panic that now reigns among Polish Jews, the nervous condition, the uncertainty about the next day. This explains the fear of sudden, unforeseen actions of officials, in whose hands the Jew is ‘like clay in the hands of the potter.’ This explains the psychology of ‘spend the little money that you’ve got, since it will be taken away from you anyway,’ and on the other hand the feeling that in Poland one can attain to nothing, that troubles are still in store in Poland, and that he who can do it should run away, save himself as soon as possible, since later on it may get still worse. This panic itself is to blame for the anarchy that now reigns in the economic life of Polish Jews.

“But the Jewish population isn’t to blame for its panicky, nervous condition. The blame lies on all the Polish governments which until now have been conducting one and the same policy against the Jews, a policy of creating a new ghetto for Jews.

“But the Jews are too rooted, too important in Polish economic life that such experiments shouldn’t harm the entire organism of the young and weak Polish republic. Besides all other reasons, like the lack of capital, the low prices for crops paid by the importing countries, is added the economic condition of the Jew. The latter is the most important reason for the frequent crises which Poland undergoes.

“Every country has such Jews as it deserves. And if Poland has a Jewish mass which is sick, nervous, fearful, is easily thrown into a panic and is downcast, it is the result of the attitude of Polish governments. The Poles should bear that in mind.”