Every Jew in Poland is Compelled to Be a Member of Jewish Community and to Carry out His Duties Towa

Membership of the Jewish Community is compulsory. Every Jew belongs to the Jewish Community from the day of his birth. He can leave the Jewish Community only by adopting another religion. public opposition to the Jewish religion does not release the Jew from his duties towards the Jewish Community unless he formally breaks with the Jewish faith, Deputy Gruenbaum writes in a letter which he addressed to the Minister of Education and Public Worship before leaving for London, protesting against paragraph 20 of the election regulations to the Jewish Communities, under which members of the Jewish Communities who have taken a public stand against the Jewish religion may be deprived of their vote in the elections to the Jewish Communities, which take place at the end of next month.

Paragraph 20, therefore, violates the principle of liberty of conscience guaranteed to every citizen of the polish Republic by the Constitution, he proceeds. Many Jews regard the Community as the organ of national self-administration of the Jewish population, the more so since its functions are not exclusively religious and a considerable section of the Jewish population does not cease to demand national self-administration for the Jewish Community in the sense of the respective provisions of the Constitution based upon the Minorities Treaties. For this reason they do not break with the Jewish religious Community, carry out all their duties with regard to it, and any restriction of their election rights on the ground of religious convictions expressed in word or deed are consequently in conflict with the Constitution.

The black forces in the Jewish small towns, Deputy Gruenbaum writes, are seeking to deprive members of the Jewish Communities of their election rights because they have been seen reading newspapers with bared head, have spoken in the street to a woman, or have shaved off their beards. By interpreting paragraph 20 in this manner the Agudists, assisted unfortunately by the authorities, have disposed of their political opponents and are getting ready to celebrate an election victory.

In the interview which the Minister of Education and Public Worship gave the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (reported in the J.T.A. Bulletin of the 7th. inst.) Deputy Gruenbaum goes on, we were told that the Minister agrees with our attitude on this matter and does not approve of malicious interpretations of the powers granted under paragraph 20. The Minister said, however, that the paragraph must be retained in order to protect the Jewish Community against the introduction of polities and against invasion by Communists. This seems to us altogether unnecessary, Deputy Gruenbaum declares, since everyone knows that the Jewish Communists boycott the Jewish Communities as institutions of a religious and national character.