A Conference of the Actions Committee of the Central Union of German Citizens of Jewish Faith has been held here this week, members being present from all parts of the country.
In view of the momentous changes in the political situation, and the growing difficulties to which German Jewry is exposed in political and economic life, the Conference was largely devoted to the vital question of the position of the German Jews as citizens.
Dr. Julius Brodnitz, the President of the Central Union, presided, and addresses laying down the lines of action were delivered by Dr. Ludwig Hollaender, Director of the Central Union, and Dr. Bruno Weil, one of the Vice-Presidents.
The Conference has shown, it is stated, that German Jewry as represented by the Central Union is united in its love of the German fatherland, unshaken by the campaign of anti-Jewish hatred, and determined to fight to maintain the principle and application of equal rights of the German Jews as citizens of the country.
German Jewry will henceforth concentrate all its efforts on this aim, at the same time continuing the work of rebutting anti-Jewish attacks and of engaging in educational activity to enlighten our non-Jewish fellow-citizens on the truth of the Jewish question.
Each of the delegates has undertaken to work in this spirit in his own area.
The “C. V. Zeitung”, the official organ of the Central Union of German Citizens of Jewish Faith, publishes an article dealing with the change in the Cabinet and the coming Reichstag elections, which points out that as a non-political body, the Central Union has no political demands to make to the new Cabinet, but must demand from it one thing only, that the citizenship of the German Jews, their claim to equal rights, must be recognised and protected.
We have confidence, it proceeds, in the new Minister of the Interior, Herr von Gayl, who has stated to a representative of the “Ostpreussische Zeitung” that “the Government will see to it that not only peace and order but also the rights and the safety of the individual citizens will be assured”.
The constant acts of terrorism and the incessant threats of Nazi leaders show to what an extent the rights and the safety of German citizens of Jewish faith are menaced, the “C. V. Zeitung” writes, and we therefore look to the Government to realise that German Jews are in danger, and to utilise all its powers to guarantee the rights assured to them in the Constitution.
Commenting on the recent statement given to the J.T.A. here from an authorised quarter, that Jews need have no anxiety on the score of pessimistic suggestions that the new Government is antisemitic, and declaring that the new Government will uphold the Constitutional rights of all citizens and will not tolerate any attack upon members of a class or religion, the German Zionist organ, the “Juedische Rundschau” says:
We shall not be wrong if we assume that this statement is intended more for export than for consumption at home. The statement is meant to calm Jewish public opinion abroad and at home. We have repeatedly expressed our opinion that the situation of German Jewry depends less on any Cabinet than on social and economic tendencies. We are neither quieted nor disquieted by the statements of the new Cabinet. With our eyes on Jewish history, and recognising the oneness of the Jewish problem, we are not much perturbed by day-to-day events. Our demands are directed primarily to our own community, and then only by way of their united organisations to Governments and the surrounding world.
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