Compulsory Sunday Closing Danger Agitating Czecho-slovakian Jews.

The movement in favour of enforcing Compulsory Sunday Closing in Czecho-Slovakia is continuing to cause anxiety among the Jews of the country, who are now beginning to organise a big defensive campaign to ward off the danger. The Government, by enforcing such a law, it is pointed out, would compel the Jews to rest on 124 days in the year, 52 Sabbaths, 52 Sundays, 13 Jewish festival days, 5 Christian festivals, and two State holidays. The idea of Compulsory Sunday Closing, it is claimed, is based on the recommendation of the Third International Labour Conference held in Geneva in 1921, which only urges that all workers should have a full 24 hours rest in the seven days, and does not stipulate that the day of rest must be Sunday. There is nothing said in the recommendation against Jews being compelled to rest 48 hours in the week. In England and Holland, it is pointed out, there are special exemptions for Sabbath observing Jews, as in the recent Hairdressers and Barbers’ Sunday Closing Act, which recognises the right of Jewish barbers to keep open on Sunday, if they close on Saturday. The 1919 Labour Law in Holland, too, exempts people belonging to a religious community whose day of rest is on the seventh day, and there is a similar legislative provision in French law.