The New York Times predicted today that a statute of religious liberty might be enacted this year in Spain, giving more religious freedom to Spanish Protestants and Jews. The prediction was based on a comment by Generalissimo Franco, in a state of the union message, in which he said he favored “the exercise of freedom of conscience,” The Times said this could only mean that he now favored passage of the bill, which has been stalled in the Spanish Cortes since last September.
Noting that the text of the measure has not been published, the Times said that it was nevertheless believed that some of the restrictions of worship by Protestants and Jews would be lifted. It added that Spaniards do not worry about Jews because they do not proselytize and are few in number. The paper estimated that there are no more than 5,000 practicing Jews in Spain, most of them in Barcelona, some in Madrid and a few in Valencia and Seville.
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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.
