Jewish Life Reviewed in Latest Cables and Letters

The following article by Mr. Tenenblatt deals with the status of Austrian Jewry, now threatened by the rising tide of anti-Semitism in that country which has been established as a powerful corporate state. The author was ousted from Austria on February 18 on the charge that his dispatches to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency were considered unfavorable to the Dollfus regime. Mr. Tenenblatt was J.T.A. correspondent in Austria for sixteen years, and formerly was the editor of the Jewish daily, The Tageblatt, published in Lwow, Poland.

The bloodshed in Austria has robbed the Austrian government of a great deal of foreign sympathy it held recently. Democratic opinion in Western Europe and in America distrusts the present Austrian regime, and is hostile to its Fascist experiments. Labor in all countries of the world, and the Second (Socialist) International have suddenly gone into opposition to present-day Austria. Among the Jews everywhere there is fear and anxiety about the fate of Austrian Jewry, in the face of the indeterminate, vacillating policy of Chancellor Dollfuss. The Austrian Government has a very had press. It has converted the friendship of the democratic world into sullen resentment and implacable enmity. Nothing remains but the politically interested friendship of Italy and Hungary.

It is immaterial whether this revulsion of feeling is wholly or only partly justified. It is a fact in international relations with which the ruling forces in Austria must reckon. As things are now, Austria cannot appeal to the League of Nations. The Liberal powers who at present determine the policy of the League of Nations–Great Britain, France and the Little Entente–will not go out of their way to fight the battles of a Fascist Austria. England is perturbed; France is openly furious; and the Little Entente, particularly Czecho-Slovakia, in a state of wild irritation. The support of Hungary and Italy will not compensate for losses elsewhere.

AUSTRIA WOOS JEWRY

Caught in this plight, the Austrian Government, acting on advice both inside the country and outside, has made an interesting attempt to retain at least Jewish sympathies, and to get help and support for Austria among the Jews abroad, particularly in England and America.

If Austria maintains Jewish equality, the Jews of the world will want to help Austria politically and economically. Even if it means nothing more than abstention from the Anti-Austrian campaign which has been started by the Socialist organizations, it will be worth Austria’s while to have one enemy the less.

It appears likely that Berlin is spreading reports of such pro-Jewish tendencies on the part of the Austrian government with a view to compromising Dr. Dollfuss, and the Heimwehr, in the eyes of the Christian population both of Germany and Austria. Hitler’s idea seems to be to conduct propaganda among the Austrian people against the “Judaised” Dollfus-Fey Government and against Italy’s influence in Austria.

EVIDENCE OF PRO-SEMITISM

But the fact that the Austrian government is suddenly bombarding the Anglo-American press with interviews and declarations against the Hitlerist type of anti-Semitism (three days before the fighting broke out in Vienna, we could not even get a statement in authoritative quarters that there would be general equality, without distinction of religion or race), indicates that the Austrian government wants to make it appear as if it is tending towards a more objective and legal treatment of the Jewish question.

This seems borne out by the report from Jewish quarters in Vienna that a representative and responsible Jewish deputation is going abroad to keep Jewish and general public opinion informed of the real position of Austrian Jewry. Such a move appears definitely in line with a pro-government attitude among the Austrian Jews. And it probably means that some agreement has been reached, or is about to be reached which binds the government in respect to the Jewish question in Austria.

Naturally, at this stage there must be no unasked-for foreign intervention in what is a matter for the responsible Jewish organizations in Austria. It is essential to wait for more information, though it is very likely–in view of the delicate political situation–that it will not be advisable to disclose all the facts. But one thing is certain, and that is that in view of the complicated general situation in Austria, it is essential for world Jewry to go very carefully.

No Jewish community, not even world Jewry as a whole, can guarantee or accept any guarantees from any source whatever concerning the stability of the present regime in Austria. And for that reason, the value of all these negotiations can be determined only by the future course of political developments within Austria itself.

WORLD JEWRY CAUTIONED

In the struggle between Italy on the one hand and France and the Little Entente on the other, Italy has now scored a complete victory. But no one can foresee the result of the fight that will follow between Germany and Italy. It certainly does not look as if there can be a one-sided victory of Italy over Germany. And the political outlook for Austrian Jewry cannot be clear before this fight is decided. All that the Jews in Austria or abroad can do at the present stage must therefore be in the nature of provisional arrangements, and watching to see which way the cat will jump. World Jewry must keep its eyes open and see how things in Austria are shaping.

In the last few days the anti-Semitic game in Austria has been played faster and more furiously and on a larger field. Official bodies have joined in the new campaign to push Jews out of public life, and to bar them from the right to follow their professions in public or semi-public institutions. The anti-Semitic incitement in the press has also been renewed on a large scale without meeting with any resistance on the part of the government. In fact, there are certain parties in the government coalition themselves engaged in spreading vast quantities of anti-Semitic material.

Does that mean that the government has been fooling the Jewish leaders with false assurances in order to pacify feeling abroad? Or does it mean that the government is too weak to stand out against its own parties, and keep its promises?

However that may be, we must look at the Jewish question in Austria with different eyes than some of the Jewish leaders in Austria are regarding it now.