A demand that the Polish Government end the economic anti-Semitism rampant in Poland was voiced in the Sejm yesterday by Dr. Emil Sommerstein, Jewish deputy from Lwow.
Dr. Sommerstein, charging that “the cancer devouring Jewish economic life” has begun to destroy the entire economic system in Poland, called on the Government to take action in accordance with the famous proclamation issued by Prime Minister Kazimier Bartel in July of 1926 designed to end economic anti-Semitism, The Bartel proclamation, Dr. Sommerstein declared, has to this day not been put into effect, since anti-Semitism is today a political weapon gaining favor as a result of foreign influences.
Dr. Sommerstein’s statement was made before a committee which is considering granting to President Moscicki legislative powers.
Equal treatment for all categories of tax payers was also demanded by Dr. Sommerstein, who emphasized the displeasure felt by the Jewish deputies of the Sejm that none of them was coopted for service on the tax commission. Dr. Sommerstein was invited by the commission as a guest-expert to sit in on its deliberations. He does not en#cy voting power on the tax body.
Bartel’s proclamation was made to the Sejm on July 19, 1926, in his first statement of Government policy to that body after having been made Prime Minister. He declared that economic anti-Semitism was harmful to the Polish State and that questions of taxation and credit must be decided on their merits and not along religious lines.
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.
