Jewish circles in Czechoslovakia are concerned over a new announcement that Carpathian Jews, who chose to retain Czechoslovak citizenship after the ceding of Carpatho-Russia to the U.S.S.R., have been ordered by Soviet authorities to report to repatriation centers.
Earlier the Czechoslovak Government ruled that Jews who gave their nationality is Jewish in the 1930 census would have their choice of citizenship. A mixed Soviet-Czechoslovak commission has now been appointed to examine and revise these declarations of choice during the next two months. It will be the job of this commission to decide whether the Carpathian Jews choosing Czech citizenship will be repatriated to the Soviet Union and whether the certificates issued by the Czechoslovak Government officially recognizing their choice will be invalidated. These Government certificates have, up to now, been considered the equivalent of Czechoslovak citizenship.
Leo Rosenthal, Bratislava Jewish leader and head of the Palestine Office there, announced today that the Jewish Agency would allot immigration certificates to Czechoslovak Jews, but asserted that the Agency could not meet the demand for immediate immigration. Declaring that certificates are intended primarily for relatives of Palestine Jews, chalutzim, and orphans, Rosenthal said that of the last 25 certificates received by his office, 20 had been granted to Carpathian Jews because of the precarious legal position of their citizenship. He said that the Agency was offering all possible ends to the Carpathian Jews.
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.
