A solution was proposed for the perplexing Jewish problem by the president of the Christian Social party, former Minister for Education Dr. Emmerich Czermak, yesterday, when he demanded that Jews undergo a transformation he called “dissimilation.”
Dr. Czermak, whose political followers are divided on the question of whether to restore the monarchy or to unite with Germany, expressed the view that the Jewish people, if they want to dissolve their difficulties, should make an effort to remove the stigma of “assimilation” from their position in the Austrian state and hence escape the peril of the anti-Semitic wave here.
He said that, first and foremost, the “Jew is a Jew, and not German.”
Dr. Czermak said that he is not opposed to the numerus clausus which anti-Semitic students demand be established to delimit the enrollment of Jews in Austrian educational institutions, since “it is just as well that the Jews establish their own schools.”
He made it clear, however, that by violence the anti-Jewish legions will never attain their ends. His own solution to the problem, he insisted, is “suitable” to Austrian culture.
The former Minister of Education in the Buresch cabinet urged the Austrian Jews to help themselves in resolving the obstacle to peace in the country which unquestionably is the strong feeling against the Jewish population.
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