Dickstein Charges Warsaw U.S. Consul Discriminates Against Rabbis’ Families

(Jewish Daily Bulletin)

Congressman Dickstein, in conference with C. Du Bois, Chief of the Visa Office of the State Department, protested against alleged improper action by the American Consul at Warsaw in unduly delaying the granting of visas to the wives and children of rabbis who entered the United States prior to July 1, 1924. The exemption from the quota of the wives and children of these rabbis was provided for by the Dickstein Bill passed by Congress last summer. This bill requires that the privilege extended thereby expires within one year from the date of adoption, namely the first of July next.

Congressman Dickstein charged that the Consul in Warsaw has been insisting upon excessive proof and unnecessary details regarding the status of the rabbis. Should this delay continue, a number of wives and children may be barred by the expiration of the year’s limitation. One of the problems that has arisen in these cases involves rabbis who were admitted as quota immigrants, but who later obtained positions as rabbis in the United States. The Consul ruled that the rabbis must have been admitted as such on a nonquota basis in order to entitle their wives and children to admission as non-quota immigrants. Congressman Dickstein insists, however, that all that is necessary is to prove that the rabbi pursued his vocation at least two years before going to America to continue in the rabbinate, the fact that he entered as a quota immigrant being immaterial.