It is my wish that baptised Jews should be admitted to the Jewish student nation, the Minister of Education, Dr. Czermak, said in a public address delivered here to-day making it clear that he identifies national citizenship, on which his new student rights bill in Parliament is based (restoring the system of student "nations which existed in the medieval universities). with the race-principle.
Exceptions may be made only in such cases he went on, where the convert is of mixed parentage and has been brought up by a German parent who has been Germanic for generations.
The Minister of Education took the opportunity in the course of his speech to assail the Liberal and Socialist press, which is opposing his bill, dubbing it a German-language but not a German press.
I highly esteem the Jewish nationality, which has stood firm by the Jewish people in spite of its loss of its own land and language, the Minister said, and that is why I want to establish also a Jewish student nation, which will comprise all those students who belong to the Jewish people, Zionists, Jewish Democrats and Jewish Socialists, and I desire that the Jewish student nation should admit as members also Jews who belong to other religious faiths.
In any case, he said, the German student nation can be no place of refuge for Jews who are not admitted into the Jewish student nation because they have changed their religion. Besides, it is for the student nation itself to decide whom it will admit to membership.
The Liberal press makes a furious attack on the Minister for this speech, pointing out that by his definition of a Jew he excludes Disraeli from membership of the British people and Heine from membership of the German people.
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.
