The resignation of Dr. Jakob Orenstein, only non-Zionist on the board of the Vienna Jewish Community, from his post as vice-president of that body, and his resignation from the presidency of the Union of Austrian Jew, has created a furor in Jewish circles here.
Dr. Orenstein resigned because his group is determined not to consent to any limitation of the citizenship rights of the Austrian Jews and is fearful that the Zionist majority will compromise with the Christian Socialist party which is seeking to restrict Jewish rights in Austria.
The Jewish Telegraphic Agency today received official statements from the Zionist majority group and from the Union of Austrian Jews explaining their position.
UNION ACCUSES ZIONISTS
The statement of the Union complained that the Zionists were attempting to convert a religious community into an instrument of Jewish nationality. Such a course, it protested, would seriously injure the Jewish position within a homogeneous German population in a state like Austria: lead to stigmatizing native Jewry as an alien body, and even with formal equality, cause the subordination of Jews in all spheres of life.
The Union points out that even the most bitter anti-Semitic leaders do not disguise their sympathies with the Jewish national ideology, while the leaders of the new Austria, particularly Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss, seek the concentration of the good will of all citizens for the up-building of a new state emphasizing the equality of all before the law, irrespective of race or creed.
The Zionists, on the other hand, declare that the Union is emphasizing its loyalty to the fatherland and the new authoritative state because it is anxious to destroy the effects of its recent alliance with the Austrian Social Democrats and with working class Jewish elements and is utilizing a new alliance with the Agudath Israel, orthodox Jewish group, to further political aims.
Former presidents of the Jewish Community, when that body was controlled by the Union, constantly intervened with the Austrian government for purely political purposes on behalf of the Jews, the Zionists pointed out, citing such matters as student disturbances, equality of citizens, the anti-Semitic press, and even Jewish economic activities, such as artisan credits.
The Zionist statement concluded with an avowal that the Jewish nationalism of a large section of Austrian Jewry will never harm the Jews in the eyes of the non-Jewish world. If the Union’s arguments were correct, the Zionist statement pointed out, there would never be place in the state life of a German Christian country like Austria for the Jewish minority, irrespective of whether it was national or religious. Equality of citizenship, the Zionist statement declared, knows no distinctions between race, religion and nationality and gives Jews the right to avow their views without restricting citizenship status.
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