Half of Italian Jews Jobless As Result of Anti-semitic Measures

It is estimated that nearly half of the Jews of Italy are unemployed as a result of the Government’s anti-Semitic measures.

Meanwhile, Virginio Gayda, Premier Mussolini’s journalistic spokesman, writing in Giornale d’Italia, blamed Jewish stockholders for an “unhealthy rise in many industrial shares” and added that “it would not be difficult for the authorities to single out the various Jewish groups in possession of negotiable shares or the so-called ‘exempted Jews’ who lend their names to Jews in order to cover the activities of the latter.”

Recent restrictions on the economic activities of Italian Jews prohibit them from exporting fruit and vegetables and from selling school books. As in the case of most of the other measures taken during the past year to curb the influence of the Jews in Italian economy, these orders have apparently been carried into effect through administrative authority and not by official decree.

Practically the only important occupation in which any considerable number of Italian Jews continue to be employed is that of small shopkeepers, particularly in the clothing and dry goods trades, which remain comparatively unaffected. Larger stores have been compelled either to sell to “Aryan” interests or to “Aryanize” themselves by incorporating non-Jewish directors on their board. It is estimated that at least 30 per cent of successful Jewish businesses have had to camouflage themselves in this manner.

In the field of industry the Italian Government tacitly recognized the important contribution Italian Jews have rendered to the State. The cotton, wool and silk industries have been largely developed by Jewish factories, and these goods are particularly valuable in wartime. Most of these factories are still permitted to function normally, and some of them are even receiving a certain measure of Government cooperation.

On the other hand, all Jews were at once eliminated from the insurance companies, which were almost entirely their creation.

Italian Jews in the professions have suffered heavily, three quarters of them having been barred from practice. There are at present 15 Jewish doctors, who are awaiting trial on the charge of having accepted “Aryan” patients. One of them is the German refugee doctor, Irving Stuckgold, until recently the leading Court physician.

Most serious measure affecting Italian Jews has been the barring of Jewish street venders, particularly with pushcart shops. Some 15 to 20 per cent of Italian Jews lost their means of livelihood by this action.