Big Funeral for Chief Rabbi of Turkey: over 10,000 People Follow Him to Grave: All Jewish Stores in

Over 10,000 people followed in the funeral of Rabbi Chaim Bejarano Effendi, the Chief Rabbi of Turkey, who died here yesterday. Representatives of all Embassies and Consulates in Turkey were present at the funeral service, as well as the Papal Nuncio, and the representatives of the Greek and Armenian Churches.

All Jewish stores in the city were closed today.

The entire Turkish press, without exception, carries laudatory obituaries, paying tribute to the late Chief Rabbi’s work on behalf of Turkish Jewry and Turkey. The Government press declares that his death is a loss not only to the Jews of Turkey, but to the entire country, and nation.

Chief Rabbi Chaim Bejerano Effendi was a great Turkish patriot, and several years ago, his staunch Turkish patriotism brought him into conflict with the late Mr. Louis Marshall, when he, as President of the American Jewish Committee protested against the action of the leaders of Turkish Jewry, in formally renouncing the minority rights secured for the Jews of Turkey under the Peace Treaty of Lausanne.

The Jews of Turkey want no foreign interference in their affairs, the Chief Rabbi in answer to Mr. Marshall’s spirited protest declared. Who has a right to say anything on the matter when the whole of the Jewish people here have decided to renounce their minority rights? he said. If I were to give you a gold watch and you refused it, I could not compel you to take it. We do not want any foreign intervention in matters which are purely our own concern. The Jewish community is able itself to apply to the Turkish Government to safeguard its interests without having any need of foreign intervention. If we have any favours to ask of our Government, we can ask for them ourselves. Our religious books command us to obey and respect the Government. We Jews are pleased that the Swiss Civil Code has been adopted by our State. It is our principle to bow to the laws of the Republic. They may say whatever they likeabroad, but it does not interest us in the least. We want no one to meddle in our business.

The comments of the Chief Rabbi, Mr. Marshall replied, indicate that he does not understand the situation. He is speaking in terms of Oriental exaggeration when he intimates that “the entire Jewish population has renounced its minority rights”. He and the Notables who undertook such renunciation do not constitute the Jewish people any more than the Three Tailors of Tooley Street constituted the people of England. The Treaties conferred rights of citizenship which could not be taken away by the Turkish Government and conferred other fundamental rights which cannot be abdicated, even by “Notables”, without the consent of every individual concerned, and not even then without that of the League of Nations, which is the custodian of these rights. When the Minority Treaties were entered into there was no desire on anybody’s part to intervene in matters which were of Turkish concern, but only in those which were of international concern. In the interest of world place it was regarded as essential that minorities in all of the nations affected by these Treaties should be protected and guaranteed in the rights secured for them by these Treaties.

The idea that the provisions of the Swiss Civil Code adopted by Turkey are a substitute for the rights guaranteed by the Treaties, indicates how uninformed the Chief Rabbi is. A civil code is subject to amendment at any time. Rights which it today may recognise may be taken away tomorrow by the majority. It is for that reason that even in the United States we are not content to have the fundamental rights of the individual protected merely by a code or by an Act of Congress or of a Legislature. We have found it necessary to have them guaranteed in the Constitutions of the several States and the United States. The minority rights have for the same reason been guaranteed by the Treaties and by the League of Nations, which stands as a trustee for the rights so declared. Undoubtedly the Jewish religion teaches us to obey and respect the laws of the Government under which we live. But that does not mean that when that Government has by a solemn treaty made it a part of its fundamental law that we shall become citizens and remain citizens, and that as such we shall have the enjoyment of specified fundamental rights, we shall at the instance of public officials surrender those rights as if they were merely scraps of paper.