The fear that the Government bill for the repeal of the Czerist restrictions against the Jews in Congress Poland had been shelved indefinitely by the action of the Senate Juridical Commission at the beginning of this month in referring the bill back, with the approval of the Rapporteur on the question, Senator Achronowicz, of the Government Party, was dispelled to-day, when it was accepted by the Senate Commission, all its members except those belonging to the avowedly-antisemitic National Democratic Party, voting in favour. The bill is now assured of adoption by the Senate in Plenary session, where it will come up probably at the next sitting. The Pro-Government Club in the Senate has decided unanimously to vote for the bill when it comes up in the Senate, and since the Club has an independent majority, there is no longer any question about its final enactment.
The holding up of the bill by the Senate Commission came as a complete surprise, since the Government had pledged itself to have the restrictions removed from the Statute Book, and had secured its speedy adoption in the Seym, where the Pro-Government bloc is in as complete control as in the Senate.
Twelve years after the German occupation forces left Poland, Deputy Rabbi Thon, the president of the Club of Jewish Deputies, said in the Seym a few days after, we saw rising on the horizon the light of the removal of the yellow patch of the Czarist restrictions, but it was not to be. The bill for the repeal if the Czarist restrictions came up in the Senate Commission, and with members of the Government sitting silently by and giving tacit consent, the bill has been referred back for an indefinite period.
We shall never consider the abolition of the Czarist restrictions as a concession to the Jews, Deputy Rabbi Thon added, but only as the removal of a stain upon the escutcheon of Polish honour, This is the view urged repeatedly by the Jewish Parliamentary representatives and the Jewish Press in Poland that the annulment of the Czarist restrictions is rather a question of prestige for the Polish State than of any definite benefit to the Jews.
Nevertheless, the sudden shelving of the bill caused something of consternation in Jewish quarters. The Jewish members of the Government Party, Deputies Minzberg, Wislicki, and Jeger, and Senator Mendelsohn, were immediately authorised by the President of the Government Parliamentary Club, make … that the Government and the Pro-Government Parliamentary Club were determined to have the Czarist restrictions abolished, and that the bill for their removal from the Statute Book would be brought up in the Senate at its next meeting and would be carried into force.
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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.
