The provision of the proposed new Argentine constitution which calls for foreigners who reside in Argentina for two years to apply for citizenship or leave the country may lead to grave complications for some foreign Jews in this country, Jewish circles today pointed out.
These circles were concerned with the fact that the proposed constitution does not provide for automatic citizenship, but leaves the matter of granting citizenship to another law, still to be promulgated. In the past, Jews who because of the war could not produce birth certificates were automatically barred from citizenship by federal judges.
If the same situation should prevail after passage of the new constitution, the Jews will conceivably be in a worse predicament. It is feared that in complying with the law and applying for citizenship, Jews without adequate documentary evidence of their birth will be left in a legal limbo and may run into a myriad of difficulties.
Jewish circles here also point out that the draft constitution makes no provision for declaring racial persecution a high crime, as was promised by the pro-Peronist Organization Israelita Argentina. The pro-Peronist group explains this by stating that the present draft of the charter is not “definitive,” However, it is pointed out that under the general clause which orders the outlawing of anti-democratic groups, the anti-Semitic pro-fascist Alianza Libertadora Nacionalista is expected to be dissolved.
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