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Find Asch Novel Offensive to Catholicism

August 12, 1929
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The publication of a Polish translation of Sholom Asch’s Yiddish novel, “The Witch of Castile,” describing Jewish life in Spain during the Inquisition period, has evoked a storm of protest in the three Lemberg Polish dailies, “Kurjer Lwowski,” “Slowo Polskie” and “Dziennik Lwowski.” The novel is now being published serially in the Polish Jewish daily, “Chwila.”

Prof. Stanislaw Glombinski, leader of the National Democratic party, published an article in the “Kurjer Lwowski” in which he asks the authorities why they take no measures to suppress the novel in protection of the Catholic religion. The “Slowo Polskie” urges the State Attorney to institute action. The “Dziennik Lwowski” says that although the novel contains nothing “dangerous,” it is not fit for publication in the Polish language.

The campaign against Sholom Asch’s novel is viewed in certain Jewish circles here as an maneuver to prepare a counter-attack in connection with the forthcoming trial of the 32 Polish students who participated in the anti-Jewish excesses in this city on June 2, when the unfounded rumor was spread that Jewish high school girls were guilty of mocking at a Catholic church procession. The trial is scheduled for the beginning of September.

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