Fight Zionism, Anti-Nazism or Quit Italy, Fascist Paper Tells Jews

Popolo d’Italia, paper founded by Premier Mussolini, demanded today that the Italian Jews declare themselves enemies of "international Hebrewism," oppose Zionism and halt their protests against Nazi race principles.

An article in the Milan newspaper by Oreste Gregario declared:

"We do not admit that our Hebrews can have the mentality of their co-religionists who were and are the inspiration of the Spanish horrors, of the French disorientation, or the Soviet inferno.

"The Hebrews of Italy face a dilemma which up to now they have ignored – perhaps transported by a religious impulse or by a vision which did not cling to reality – a precise and inevitable dilemma.

"Either they must publicly declare themselves enemies – we mean enemies – of international, Masonic, subversive and, above all, anti-Fascist Hebrewism and give to their manifestations a character simply and sincerely religious or renounce their Italian citizenship and residence.

"It is inconceivable that in synagogues and communities meetings begin with expressions of fidelity to Italy, the King and I1 Duce and at the same time demonstrate sympathies, even though theoretical, with problems and actions hostile to Italy, to the King and to I1 Duce."

Opposition to Nazi race principles, the paper asserted, are "irreconcilable with the friendship that binds us to Germany and which has objectives far more vast and fundamental than the Jewish question."

The article, charging Zionism aimed to set up another State under British control, "in definite opposition to the Mediterranean spirit of Italy," argued that patriotic Italians could not endorse such an anti-Moslem movement after Premier Mussolini had declared Italy’s policy of friendship with Islamic peoples.

Gregario’s article climaxed a campaign against the Jews in progress for many months in a section of the Fascist press. Deputy Paolo Crane, Fascist educator and politician, recently wrote a book demanding that the Italian Jews abandon Zionism as inconsistent with Italian patriotism. It was widely featured in the Fascist press.