Fifteen separate lists of candidates will be put forward in the forthcoming elections to the Warsaw Jewish Community, the Yiddish daily “Najer Hajnt” here states. April 27th. is the more may still be added. The entire situation, it explains, is very confusing. No party has a complete list of candidates yet. Controversy is still raging about certain people, as to whether they are to be put on the lists or not. Some of those left out may get new committees formed to sponsor them. Even the Zionist Organisation has not yet completed its list, the paper goes on. An agreement has been reached between three of the Zionist groups, the Al Hamishmac, Et Livmoth, and the Revisionists, with respect to the leading candidate on the Zionist list. He will be Mr. Moses Feidstein, the senior member of the Zionist Organisation in Warsaw, and Vice-President of the retiring Administration of the Warsaw Jewish Community. The other candidates on the Zionist list are to be decided on in the next few days.
In the Agudah, the “Hajnt” says, things are even more unsettled. The young Agudists belonging to the Zeire Emunah Israel are threatening an open revolt if their candidates are not given good places on the list . The Agudah is very dispirited, the “Hajnt” claims, fearing that in Warsaw the famous Paragraph 20, which provides for the exclusion of non-religious Jews from the lists of voters, may be its undoing, because in Warsaw, having no majority on the Board of the Community, it cannot exercise this power, and will have to face the resentment of its opponents.
The Democratic Election Committee formed by Dr. Goldflam, one of the non-Zionist members of the Jewish Agency, and ex-Deputy Trusker, the leader of the Jewish Merchants’ Federation, the “Hajnt” proceeds, will play an important part in these elections. The Committee has been formed on a purely national platform, and seeks to concentrate all non-partisan national Jews who are out to fight the domination of the Agudah and the Assimilationists. The Committee is trying to establish a united front of all the Jewish national groups.
The Mizrachi, too, is making strenuous efforts. Ex-Deputy Farbstein, the former Fresident of the Warsaw Jewish Community, is its leading candidate. There is still a possibility of the Mizrachi joining in a bloc with the Central Zionists.
The Zionist Labour Party, Hitachduth, has not yet definitely decided on its stand in the elections. It, too, may join with the General Zionists.
But ever so many new groups and parties have been specially formed to contest the elections, the “Hajnt” continues. The Adath Yisroel, which has concentrated around itself the non-partisan religious Jews, is particularly active. Then there is a “bloc for real work”, consisting of the neo-assimilationist elements. There are several smaller groups, like the Folkists, who are trying to form a bloc with the artisans, headed by ex-Deputy Rassner. There are the small traders, the Poale Zion, both Right and Left, the group of Jewish religious Socialists, and it is suggested that several of the philanthropic societies, like the Hesed Shel Emeth, will put up lists of candidates of their own.
The main fight for power in this largest Jewish Community in Europe, will lie, however, between the Zionists and the Agudah, the “Hajnt” concludes.
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.
