J.D.B. News Letter

(By Our Riga Correspondent)

The Jewish community in Latvia is one of the few exceptions in the area of Eastern Europe which enjoys comparative peace and approaches a status where the constitutional fight for the satisfaction of the cultural and economic demands of the Jewish population is proceeding in the legislative bodies of the Republic.

Latvia, one of the Baltic states formed following the collapse of the Russian Empire, has a population of two million. The Jewish oppulation numbers 95.675. The forty thousand Jewish voters have succeeded in electing five Jewish deputies in the Saima, the parliament, which consists of 100 deputies. These five deputies are representative of all shades of opinion dividing the community. One Jewish deputy is a representative of the Jewish labor party, Bund, and in parliament is affiliated with the Left Social Demorats who number 33 and are the strongest fraction. The other four Jewish deputies compose what is known as the Jewish fraction. This fraction, however, is divided into three different groups. Two of the deputies are representatives of the Orthodox Agudath Israel, one represents the Mizrachi and one the Middle Class Zionists. The advantage of this situation is best expressed in the fact that because of the party division, national minority representatives are to be found on every important parliament commission which passes on the legislation which is to be brought before the chamber. The Jewish population in Lativa takes part in the political life of the country and the recent elections have demonstrated a 100 per cent, participation in the elections by the Jewish community.

In their attitude toward the questions affecting the national minorities in the Republic, the Jewish deputies are lending their support to the following three cardinal demands:

One–a revision of the citizenship law. According to this law Latvian citizenship is acquired automatically by every person who has been in possession for twenty years of a passport issued by the former Russian governor over the territory which constitutes Latvia of today. In special cases the cabinet is authorized to errant citizenship following a sojourn in the country of five years.

These provisions of the law prove to be of little if any advantage to a great number of Jewish families who have de facto lived in Latvia but because of the fact that Latvia was outside the Pale of Settlement the were inscribed in the Czarist records of population as residents of other parts of the Russian Empire. They are thus unable to produce records showing that they have lived in Latvia twenty years although this is actually the case. In addition many Jewish residents of Kurland were exiled at the command of Nicholai Nicholaievitch. These exiles have received their identification cards in their new places of residence and can not therefore comply with the requirements of the law to prove their right to Latvian citizenship. The Germans in Latvia are in a similar situation.

Two–Questions pertaining to cultural autonomy. At the Interparliamentary Conference held in Geneva in 1924, the Jewish deputy, Nurok, made the statement that the school legislation affecting the national minorities in Latvia is most ideal. The schools which serve the needs of the national minorities are maintained by state and municipality. In the Ministry of Education there exists a department for each national minority. The chief of each deartment is recommended by the deputies representing the respective minorities and is appointed by the Minister. These department chiefs are, according to the provisions, entitled to an advisory vote in parliament when the questions of their departments are discussed.

The national minorities in Latvia, however, are not satisfied with this arrangement and have formulated the demand that a national council for each minority be formed. Such a council is to be recognized as a legal public institution with the right of imposing compulsory taxation upon the members of its group for welfare and educational work. These demands are meeting with the opposition of the Right and the Left parties in the Latvian majority. The possibility, however, is not precluded that certain concessions in this regard will be granted by the Latvian parties.

The third question which unites the national minorities in Latvia is the one pertaining to the purchase of property. According to the agrarian law the acquisition of property in cities and in villages must be preceded by special permission of the Minister of Justice. The law which has mainly affected the German barons has ruled that no person shall have in his possession more than an area of 50 hectares. This provision is also applied to property in the towns. In the administration of this law, the national minorities are meeting with what is alleged to be discrimination on the part of the Latvian officials.

The comparative ease which the Jewish community in Latvia enjoys does not mean that there is no anti-Semitism in the country. However, anti-Semitism in the Republic is limited to its vulgar expressions and finds a barrier insofar as the government institutions go.

Of the 323 Successful candidatees who passed the Illinois State bar examination on hundred are Jews.