Deputy Gruenbaum Splits Already Diminutive Jewish Club of Deputies by Enteping into Bloc with Ukrain

Since it is impossible for me to belong to any of the Parliamentary Commissions, because the Club of Jewish Deputies numbers less than the minimum of ten Deputies required to entitle it to representation on the Commissions, Deputy Gruenbaum informed the Jewish Telegraphic Agency to-day, Deputy Rosenblatt and I are entering into a technical bloc with the Ukrainian minority, which will enable me to have a seat on the Constitutional Committee with full voting powers, and will give Deputy Rosenblatt a seat on the Trade and Industrial Commission.

Several members of the Club of Jewish Decuties have been given the privilege by the Parliamentary authorities as an act of courtesy to sit on some of the Commissions without the right of voting, but in the case of Deputy Gruenbaum, the Constitutional Commission to which it was intended to send him refuses to have him as a member, even without the right to vote. If he is sent to the Commission by the Ukrainian minority, which has the right of full representation, the Commission would be unable to object to his membership, since there would be no appeal to its courtesy for any special privilege in his favour.

Deputy Gruenbaum is urging the Club of Jewish Deputies as a whole to follow his example by entering into a technical bloc with the national minorities, but there is very little likelihood of the Jewish Club agreeing to his idea. Deputy Gruenbaum and Deputy Rosenblatt have given the Jewish Club an assurance that though they will be sitting on the Commissions as the representatives of the Ukrainian minority, they are remaining members of the Club of Jewish Deputies.

The opinion is held, however, that despite the assurance, Deputy. Gruenbaumshas by his action split the Club of Jewish Deputies with the policy of whose present leaders, Rabbi Dr. Thon and Dr. Rosmarin, he is not in accord.