Premier Benito Mussolini assured Dr. Solomon Goldman in a personal interview six years ago that he would not tolerate anti-Semitism and that history would not stand for anti-Semitism in Italy, the president of the Zionist Organization of America recalled today in a statement issued on the eve of sailing for a tour of Europe and Palestine.
“The Fascist leader assured me most forcefully and unequivocally that anti-Semitsm never would be tolerated by him in Italy,” Dr. Goldman said. “The Jews of Italy, Il duce stated, are as old-established Italians as the rest of the population. Mussolini quoted from the Roman historian Suetonius concerning how the Roman and the Jew mourned side by side at the bier of the assassinated Julius Caesar. I remember that I supplemented Mussolini’s quotation by reminding him that if Jews were among the chief mourners on that occasion it was because they had good reason to love caesar; for in order to insure the sanctity of their Sabbath he had changed the distribution day of the dole for the Jewish poor. History Mussolini told Me, will not stand for anti-Semitism in Italy.
Mussolini has completely surrendered to Hitler and Nazism and contents himself “to be from now on the back wheel of the Rome-Berlin axis,” Dr. Goldman said. He added: ” this no coincidence that Italy has introduced the Aryan racial theory into her own country just now, when Arab trouble makers, incited and financed by foreign powers, are subjecting the peaceful inhabitants of Palestine to unprecedented terror.”
Dr. Goldman will sail on the S.S. Washington tomorrow for a visit of investigation in Palestine, where he is to confer with Jewish leaders on extension of American Jewish support and enlargement of immigration opportunities. After a few days in London, where he is expected to meet with Dr. Chaim Weizmann, president of the World Zionist Organization, Dr. Goldman will fly to Warsaw for a brief study of the Jewish situation in Poland. From there he will fly to Palestine where he will visit the major points of Jewish settlement. He will then fly to Antwerp, Belgium to attend a special meeting of the Palestine Foundation Fund.
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.
