(Jewish Telegraphic Agency)
Can a Jew be elected mayor of a Polish town.
This question was raised and the reply of the law was given in the case of David Rubenstein, who was elected mayor of the village, Irena, district of Lublin.
By a popular vote, the peasants elected Rubenstein, mayor of their village. The Starosta, the local governor of the district town. Polawa, annulled the election on the basis of an 1864 Czarist law concerning local self government. According to this law Jews were barred from holding public office. Following this annullment, Deputy Hartglass, president of the Club of Jewish Deputies, intervened with the Minister of the Interior. General Skladkowski who urged the governor of Lublin to annual the decision of the Starosta as the 1864 law is against the spirit of the Polish constitution.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.