J.D.B. News Letter

Polish Jewry Divided in Three Camps for Forthcoming Elections (By our Warsaw correspondent)

Jewish voters in Poland will go to the polls in the February election of the third Polish Sejm in divided ranks. The election campaign having reached its height, finds the forces concentrated around to conceptions, one advocating support for the bloc or national minorities, the other for what is termed a Jewish bloc composed of the Orthodox Agudath Israel, the Jewish People’s Party (Folkists), and the Central Federation or Jewish Small Traders.

This applies only to Congress Poland In Galicia, a separate Jewish list supported by the majority of local Zionists, under Dr Leon Reich, will he presented. A statement issued by the Jewish bloc in Congress Poland declares:

“The approaching election has again confronted the Jewish population or Poland with the question of a national rep-presentation, which will be capable of fighting for the still unrealized Jewish rational, religious, citizenship, social and economic equality of rights, and should in number be sufficiently strong to be reckoned with. The election constituencies ex the election ordinance have been so mendaciously arranged that the Jews, even if they are united, cannot secure even hit the representation to which they are entitled by their numerical proportion in the country. Even the most favorable diction ordinance would not improve matters very much because as a non-territorial minority, we must always be in an unfavorable position so long as there is to national election curie, which is the only guarantee of real equality of rights a the elections. As there is no Jewish national curie, it is essential in the Jewish national interest to form a united today of all the Jewish political partied economic organizations, or at least of the bourgeois organizations m order partly to diminish the danger of the present election ordinance. It was therefore the duty of the Jewish political parties and economic organizations to come to an understanding for the establishment of a united Jewish front. One group, unfortunately, ignored this need and without asking any one concluded on its own account an agreement with individual groups of the territorial minorities, who have entirely different interests and aspirations from the Jewish minority. Realizing the gravity of the position ad the danger threatening the interests of the Jewish population in Poland, we have formed a general Jewish national election bloc. Invitations were sent to all the Jewish parties, but none of the Zionist leaders even replied to the invitation. The doors of the bloc remain open, nevertheless, for all who desire victory for the Jewish cause.

“The general Jewish National election block stance on the basis that the Jews in Poland ought to conduct their own Jewish policy and cannot, especially in the present political moment join with elements with whom it is not the Jewish interest to join in their policy and tactics. The so-called minorities bloc has in addition proved itself unworkable because the majority of the Ukrainians and white Russians, as well as the German Labor Party, have refuse to join it, and it cannot therefore give its Jewish participants even those minimum benefits which the Minorities’ lists gave them in the elections of 1922 and can only result in the Jewish votes cast for it being lost and spoiling the chances of Jewish candidates.

“The new seym will be called upon the change the Constitution and the basis of the election ordinance. The Polish reactionaries are therefore making efforts to obtain such a majority in the new Sejm to enable them to make these changes in the way they wish and in opposition to the interests of the masses and especially of the Jewish national minority. The new Sejm will also have to solve a large number of burning economic problems affecting the trade of the country and therefore primarily the Jews. It is accordingly necessary that the Jewish population should have a proportionate representation in the Seym. The success of our fight for national rights and economic opportunities demands that we should enter into close contact with the Polish Democratic groups which stand out against reactions and in that way prepare for the realization of the Constitution. The example of Jewish emancipation in Western Europe shows us that it was the victory of democracy which made it possible. The general Jewish National bloc therefore appeals to the Jewish masses to support it in its fight for the realization of the Jewish National program in Poland,” the statement concludes.

Deputy Gruenbaum, Deputy Farbstein Deputy Hartglass, and Deputy Dr. Schipper addressed a conference of Jewish Press representatives here yesterday at the offices of the Zionist Organization, explaining to them the program of the Jewish bloc within the bloc of National Minorities.

Deputy Gruenbaun in an address lasting four hours dealt with the position of the Jewish population in Poland before and since the May rising under Marshal Pilsudski. He explained the reasons which had led him and his colleagues to join the bloc of National Minorities in Poland. He dealt with the Election Ordinance which, he said, was specially designed to prevent the Jews obtaining any real representation in the Sejm. It was because of this Ordinance that the Jews had in the elections of 1922 no option but to join in a bloc with the National Minorities. The bloc has enabled the Jews to obtain in that election a more or less proportionate representation in Parliament.

The same conditions, Deputy Gruenbaum said, exist today. There had been no change in the Election Ordinance. If the Jews stood alone they would only be able to secure a negligible number with the National ## Deputy ## also explained whey he had not ## Israel and the ## by Deputy ## to join the bloc. Apart from these two organization he said all other Jewish organization ## still be welcome in the bloc of National ## if they ## in to ## before Monday or Tuesday After that the ## of candidates of the bloc would ## and it would be impossible to make any ##