When Count Bethlen came into office, armed detachments were going about the country murdering Jews in the streets, the Jewish organ “Egyenloeseg” here writes in an editorial on Count Bethlen’s retirement from the premiership, after holding the post for 10 years continuously, and his succession now by Count Julius Karolyi.
Now that Count Bethlen has gone, it says, we review the past ten years of his rule, and we wonder, with good deal of anxiety, what will follow under his successor. Count Bethlen’s most fanatical adherents and his most fanatical opponents were both Jews, it proceeds. His adherents are those who cannot forget that he put a stop to the pogroms in Hungary, that he paid tribute in eloquent words to the patriotism and the love of fatherland of the Hungarian Jews, that it was he who with strong hand crushed the anti-Jewish excesses of the Race Protectors, that it was he who opened to our coreligionists the benches of the Upper House of Parliament, thus completing the process of emancipation. His opponents are those who cannot forget that he maintained the accursed numerous clausus law, which would not permit that Jews should obtain their rightful places in the universities and in the educational and professional life of the country, and that he did not lift up his little finger to put a stop to the economic antisemitism and discrimination in Hungary. One camp names him saviour; the other camp names him the enemy of the Jews.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
