Brainin Denies Soviet Agency Interview

(Jewish Telegraphic Agency)

Reuben Brainin, Hebrew writer and honorary vice-president of the Zionist Organization of America, requested the Jewish Telegraphic Agency office here to deny an alleged interview with him which was circulated by the Tas (the Soviet Telegraphic Agency).

According to the Soviet telegraphic agency’ s interview, Mr. Brainin is reported to have said that the situation in Palestine and the relations between the Arabs and Jews in Palestine have changed for the worse. Mr. Brainin declared that this entire interview was a piece of invention.

CHARGES GOVERNMENT PRESS IN POLAND WITH ANTI-JEWISH ATTITUDE

The charge that the attitude of the Left press in Poland which is loyal to the present government is as unfriendly to the Jews as that of the Right press, is put forth in “Der Moment” (Aug. 10), Warsaw Yiddish daily, by S. Hirshorn, former Jewish Sejm deputy, who points to the recent gathering of Polish legionaires in the city of Kielce, on which occasion Marshal Pilsudski publicly kissed a Jewish war veteran, as a case in point. This incident was widely reported in the Jewish papers in Poland and abroad, but the Left press in Poland, according to Mr. Hirshorn, completely ignored it.

“In vain we sought a report of this incident in the government press. Not the least trace of the fact nor of the sentiment that prevailed at the legionaires’ celebration,” Mr. Hirshorn writes.

“The Jewish population has a right to ask,” he proceeds, “why are the details of this event, which was marked by friendship toward the Jews, suppressed in the Left pro-government papers. Obviously the legionaires’ celebration was not intended only for the benefit of Kielce, but for the whole country. What good is it then if the citizens of Kielce know that the followers of the moral sanitation’ are friendly to all alike, including the Jews, when the rest of the country continues to believe that as regards the Jews the old attitude of hatred still exists?

“This policy of ignoring fine words and noble deeds must come to an end,” the writer urges. “Premier Bartel showed, through his expressions regarding the Jews in his recent statement of policy, that he is opposed to the method of ‘sinning in secret’ (secret agreements). Let his colleagues therefore imitate his worthy policy of ‘open diplomacy.'”

CONTENDS TURKISH JEWS DO NOT NEED MINORITY EIGHTS

The conviction that if Hungary, Roumania and other East Europen countries would accord their Jews the same treatment as that accorded the Jews in Turkey there would be no need for national minority guarantees in international treaties, is voiced by the “Detroit Jewish Chronicle” of Aug. 20, wherein the action of Turkish Jewry in renouncing its minority rights is termed “commendable and realistic.” The paper writes thus, in part:

“The Jew has never sought a privileged category, he is willing to be placed upon a plane of equality with the rest of the population and asks only that he be not discriminated against because of race, religion, language and culture. He wants no political privilege or economic advantage which is not accorded any other group.

“We in America have never been able to understand fully the demands of minority peoples in so-called republics. It seems a contradiction on the face of it to talk about minority rights where all are theoretically equal. Turkish Jewry has taken a long forward step by this renunciation. It indicates, that despite all condemnation of the unspeakable Turk, there is an actual enjoyment of rights of more validity than mere paper authenticity. Were this not so we daresay that the Jews of Turkey would not have renounced rights which would have made life easier and more secure.

“There are still several Christian nations of Europe–Roumania and Hungary in particular–which could follow the example of Turkey to the mutual benefit and profit of all concerned. From most recent advices it seems that Poland has learned this lesson from the pain and travail of a serious economic crisis and revolution. We believe that a dose of equality would prove an excellent medicine for many of the ills of Europe. The present experiment in Turkey will be watched with much interest and hope.”