Latvia Orders Zionist Groups to Lock Doors

Latvian authorities today ordered the closing of the Poale Zion, the Socialist Zionists, and all affiliated organizations, including the Hechalutz, the Bialik club and the Hapoel sport clubs.

The policy of the Latvian government, which came into power recently as the result of a coup d’etat, has been consistently anti-Semitic. Immediately after the seizure of power, the authorities banned all Jewish newspapers in Latvia except one and closed a number of Jewish communal institutions operated by Jewish working class organizations.

Leaders of the Bund, Jewish Socialist party, and the Poale Zion, were arrested.

At the same time the existence of the Jews in Latvia has been endangered by the introduction of special licenses for export dealers. Jewish exporters were denied licenses and the entire export trade taken out of Jewish hands.