The emergence of anti-Semitism in a strike at a Jewish-owned leather factory in Paysandu, Uruguay, has aroused the country’s Jewish community, the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith reported today.
According to ADL, posters mounted on the entrance gates and on the walls of the factory carried such anti-Semitic slogans as “Hitler was right; Too bad he is not here.” The Central Jewish Committee of Uruguay called upon the nation’s unions and union leaders to denounce this injection of anti-Semitic and pro-Nazi propaganda into a dispute between labor and management.
The anti-Semitic action has been repudiated by the national leather workers union even though the local Paysandu chapter, which represents 600 employees, has not yet issued a statement, the ADL reported.
Luis Brezzo, Uruguay’s Director of Labor, denounced the posters in a report to the Labor Committee of the Uruguayan House of Representatives in Montevideo.
In the discussion on a motion for the House to condemn the anti-Semitism, Deputy Dr. Pablo Miller of the Union Coloraday Batillista declared that “the clear anti-Semitic content is repugnant” and an impediment to the negotiating process. The motion to condemn the anti-Semitism was blocked, however, by the leftwing coalition party, Frente Amplio (Broad Front).
The Anti-Defamation League is monitoring developments with the Central Jewish Committee and the B’nai B’rith of Uruguay.
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.
