Friendly Feeling for Jews Exists in Spain of Today, Secretary of Joint Foreign Committee Reports

Prima de Rivera Will Issue Statement on Admission of Jews to Spanish Citizenship (Jewish Telegraphic Agency)

Prima de Rivera, head of the Spanish government, will shortly issue a statement with regard to the opportunity for Sephardic Jews to acquire Spanish citizenship, according to a communication to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency from Mr. Lucien Wolf, secretary of the Joint Foreign Committee of the Board of Jewish Deputies and the Anglo-Jewish Association, who is stopping in Madrid on his way back from Portugal where he made a survey of the condition of the Marranos.

Mr. Wolf was authorized by the Spanish government to deny the statements published by the “London Express” last November, that Jews are not welcome in Spain and that no Jew can become a Spanish citizen unless he adopts the Catholic faith. In fact, there is a very friendly feeling for the Jews in present day Spain, which is shared by the government, particularly in connection with the Spanish policy in Morocco, Mr. Wolf declared. A popular movement exists to bring back the Sephardim to Spain.

The municipality of Cordova, the birthplace of Maimonides, has voted a fund to erect a monument to the great Jewish physician and scholar.

The acquisition of Spanish nationality by Jews is not subject to religious conditions. Several members of the small Jewish congregation in Madrid are Spanish nationals, some of them by birth as, for instance, Senor Ignaco Bauer, a son of a Jew who was a Spanish citizen and a Spanish senator. He is a captain in the Spanish army, is provincial deputy for Madrid and an eminent member of the Spanish Academy.

All Russians, regardless of race or religion, are rigorously excluded from Spain. Is it not aimed specifically at Jews, Mr. Wolf stated.