Hitlerists See Move to Form All-german Federation of Jewish Communities As Endeavour to Constitute a

The opening to-day at Frankfurt of a Conference of representatives of the various Federations of Jewish Communities in Germany for the purpose of constituting an All-German Federation (Reichsverband) of Jewish Communities is hailed by the Chief Hitlerist organ, the “Voelkischer Beobachter” as proving the Hitlerist contention that the Jews are all linked together as a united force. We welcome this move on the part of the Jews, it says, because it means that the Jews are at last coming out into the open. The masks are off. and instead of fighting as before under various assumed names, they are making it clear that Jewry is aunited, organised force.

The formation of an All-German Federation of Jewish Communities has been under discussion since 1925. In that year, the Federation of Jewish Communities in Prussia was constituted, and when it held its first Conference in June 1925, the then President of the Berlin Jewish Community, Herr Leo wolff, said in opening the Conference, that it was the first really representative Conference of the Jews of the country, having been elected by general, direct and secret ballot, and that it would be the forerunner of a union of all the Jews of the German Republic, in a Federation of all the Jewish “Communities in Germany.”

One of the principal obstacles during these seven years to the formation of the All-German body has been the question whether the new Federation should be constituted by linking up the existing Federations, who would appoint their representatives to the new body, or by fresh country-wide elections.

In February 1929 a draft Constitution of the projected All-German Federation of Jewish Communities, which had been adopted by all the other Federations of Jewish Communities in the various German States was rejected by one vote by the Conference of the Federation of Jewish Communities in Prussia, whose approval would have been the final step to the formal constitution of the All-German Federation. The Zionist and Centre Party representatives in the Prussian Federation voted against the draft Constitution, because it provided for the constitution of the new Federation by linking together the various existing Federations, each of which would have appointed its representatives on the new body, and demanded that the All-German Federation should be constituted by means of fresh elections throughout the Jewish communities of the country. Their main objection to the linking-up scheme, was that the Federations of Jewish Communities in Saxony and Hessen do not give the franchise to East European Jews.

A few weeks ago, on April 4th., the Federation of Jewish Communities in Prussia, at its annual Conference, decided to join the Reichsverband, agreeing that it should be constituted by the appointment of representatives by each of the various Federations of Jewish Communities in the component States.