Austrian Jewish Rights Menaced

Nazis or no Nazis-the rights of the Austrian Jews are in great danger-even under Dollfus-even under a government which is trying to keep the Nazis from obtaining power.

The political proupings in Austria today are varied, as are their ambitions. But on the Jewish question they are almost completely unanimous. All-from the Nazis to Dollfuss’ Chrestian Socialist party-are of the opinion that the Jews of Austria must have their rights curtailed.

The rights of the Jews in Austria are well guaranteed under the Austrian constitution an by the Versailles Treaty. But under Dullfuss the Austrian constitution will certainly be changed in a dictatorial manner. And who can say to what extent the League of Nations will be able to interfere in the present chaotic affairs of Austria, or to what extent the League will be able to aid the Jews?

TOO MANY RRIGHTS

The general impression provalent among the gentile population of the country is that the Jews at present are enjoying too many rights in Austria; that because of the Jews, Austrian Christians can not make a living; that the Jews have usurped tha free professions; that too many of them are doctors and lawyers: that they dominate trade, that they are omnipresent and everywhere.

Unemployment in the country is great, and the economic state of the great mass of Austrians is deplorable. It is therefore easy to understand why such a state of mind should grow and spread like wild-fire, especially among the youth of Austria for whom there are no prospects whatsoever under present-day conditions in this impoverished country.

The anti-Semitic agitators make no mention of the fact that there are no Jews among the government officials of Austria. Nor does the anti-Semitic press speak of the fact that one-third of the Jewish population of Austria is dependent for very sustenance upon aid from the Jewish community. All the talk and agitation is aimed in one direction-the Jews must be deprived of most of their rights. That axiomatically will automatically improve the economic conditoin

OFFICIAL PRESS AGITATES

Deplorable as it appears, the official government press plays no small part in this nind of agitation today. The Reichpost, official newspaper of the government party, is perhaps not as vulgar in its anti-Semitism as the Nazi press, but it also lends a band occasionally in the dissemination of anti-Semitick propaganda. In the olumns of the Reichplost, too, ti is often arrgued that the Jews plaly too great role in the economic life of Austria.

Thus the government press, and thus, too, the most prominent leaders of the government party.

It is no longer a secret-and this admission was made to me quite openly in governmental circles-that in the Austrian cabinet there are today ministers who insist that the rights of the Jews must be abrogate once and for all. The Jews must be declared under a numerus clausus of only five per cent, they argue, because of only five per cent, they argue, because the Jewish population in Austria constitutes only five per cent of the total population.

These ministers argue that there is really no reason to fear the League of Nations. The League did, of course, guarantee the minority rights of the Jews in Austria, but minority rights apply ot cases where a national minority is given a representation in trade, in universities and in free professions in proportion to the numbers of the group. a restrictive quota of five per cent for the Austrian Jews in all phases of Austrian life is therefore within the province of the guraranteed monority rights.

DOLLFUS DOUBTFUL

It can not be said that Dollfuss himself recognizes these arguments. Neither can it be said that he is not in sympathy with them. If he does not carry them out, it is only because he does not wish any rupus abroad. He does not wish any Jewish petitions sent to the League of Nations. He does not with to antagonize Jews in America and in England.

It becomes more evident each day that if Dollfuss continues to remain in powere, he wil not be able to hedge on the Jewish question as he has hertofore. He will be obliged to come out openly and clearly against Jewish rights. He will have to shrink Jewish rights in the new constitution which he is planning. He will be obliged to do this no so much for anti-Semitic reasons as to prevent his followers from gradually deserting him. If he does not do this, he will drive his adherents into the ranks of the opposition parties; he will drive the despairing unemployed youth into the ranks of the Nazis, and the unanchored middle-class into the ranks of the other outspokenly anti-Semitic parties which are dissatisfied with the presentday politics of the government.

Jewish rights in Austria are therefore in grave danger, even under Dollfuss.

JEWS WILL FIGHT FOR RIGHTS

What can the Jews do? How can they save their position?

There is no doubt that in the first place the Jews are preparing for a legal fight. They are preparing to try Austria before the League of Nations.

But regardless of how successfully this struggle ends, it cannot bring any practical help to Austrian Jewry. There are any number of ways of ousting the Jews from their economic and legal positions in Austria and still remain in the right. When a government is incline3d to oppress its citizens it can always find some means of doing so and still retain its formal righteousness.

The Jews of Austria ar therefore nwo faced with the question: Shall they fight for Jewish rights or shall they, perhaps, negotiate with the government towards a friendly compromise?

The idea of a compromise, it might be interesting to note, did not originate with the Jews. As a matter of fact, the question came from the government leaders are at tempting to draw the Jews into quiet negotiations in the hopw that the Jews will perhaps themselves agree to a curtailment of their rights. In this manner they could avoid criticism abroad and trouble with the League of Nations.

LEADERS WILL NOT COMPROMISE

But the Jewish leaders of Austria-regardless of their various leanings and philosophies of life-are without exception not inclined to enter into such negotiations concerning a voluntary relinquishing of Jewish rights. They doubt that the Dollfuss government will last very long and they therefore doubt the expediency of such negotiations. Nor do they wish to be have surrendered the greater part of Jewish rights. They consider They consider such a precedent dangerous because of the present anti-Semitic wave in Europe.

Individual Jews who have personal connections in governmental circles have actually attempted the venture of carrying on Community, the only representative body of Austrian Jewry which contains representatives of all Jewish organizations, immediately put a stop to all such negotiations. The community declared that these attempts would not be taken seriously by Austrian Jewry and that organized Austrian Jewry would not consider relinquishment of even the slightest part of its constitutional rights.

CRISIS EXPECTED SOON

The question of depriving the Jews of Austria of their citizenship rights therefore remains in suspense, but not for long. All indications are that if the Jews do not unaunimously agree to give up their rights, their rights will be taken from them by force. Even under Dollfuss, even under the oresent givernment. To say nothing of the Nazis, to say nothing of what would happen if not the Nazis but the Fascist Heimwehr seize complete power.

The Nazis and the Heimwehr are fire an water to each othe. On matters of general European politics they are prepared to cut each othe’s throats. But they are practically areed on the Jewish question. This is th case with them, with the “Great-German National Party,” which is the “Hugenberg Party of Austia,” and it is also the case with the “Christian Socialist Party,” which is the Dollfuss party. None of them wish to see the Jew in Austria any longer. They cannot deport the Jew from Austria, but they would like at least to place him in a ghetto, in a ghetto of economic and legal restrictions.