Jewish Workers in Poland Demand Right to Work

(Jewish Telegraphic Agency)

A protest against the Polish government’s policy with regard to Jewish labor and the action of various governmental departments to oust Jewish workingmen from industries under a government monopoly was voiced by a general Jewish workingmen’s Congress here, the first of its kind held in the Republic of Poland.

Five hundred and eighty delegates, representing all the Jewish workingmen’s parties participated in the Congress. Four hundred of the delegates represent the Bund, 120 the Left Poale Zion and 60 the extreme radicals. The labor leaders Portnoy, Alter, Zybert, Nowogrodsky and Zerubabel were elected to the praesidium.

The Congress was held under the slogan: The Jewish workingmen must have the right to work without interference on the part of the government.

“The Jewish workingmen in Poland stand on the verge of destruction,” declared B. Michaelewitz, leader of the Bund. “The Jewish workingmen in Poland face the danger of becoming paupers and being transformed from a productive class into the class of ‘Luitmenschen.’ We must protest against the economic Kromic Jewrejew (exclude the Jews). We must proclaim an open fight against those who bar the way of the Jewish workingmen to the factory,” he stated.

The Congress received greetings from the Central Bureau of the Polish Trade Unions, of the Executive Committee of the Polish Socialist Party (P.P.S.) of the German Socialist Party in the Polish Republic, the Communist Sejm group, the Polish professionals association, city employees. All these bodies pledged their support to the Jewish workingmen’s demands. A message was also received from the Polish Minister of Labor.

A heated fight developed at the Congress between the delegates of the Bund and the delegates of the Poale Zion. The delegates of the Bund insisted that the Congress must limit itself to the problem of securing the Jewish workingmen’s right to work, while the Poale Zion delegates demanded that the Congress should also take up the question of Jewish emigration, particularly Jewish emigration to Palestine. The Poale Zion delegates also forwarded a demand that the Jewish labor Congress in Poland decide to convene a general Jewish labor Congress. The Poale Zion introduced a resolution that the Congress greet the “fighting Jewish proletariat in Palestine.” The resolution of the Poale Zion delegates was defeated.

The remarkable unity of the Jewish community of Philadelphia is illustrated in the audit of the $4,000,000 fund collected here by the Federation of Jewish Charities. The audit has just been made public by Irving Kohn, chairman of the finance committee of the Federation.

Mr. Kohn disclosed that almost 12,000 families contributed to the fund amounts ranging from 50 cents to $150,000.

With the proceeds of the campaign six more Hebrew schools will be built, where Jewish children, whose parents cannot afford to pay, will receive a Jewish education. Other charitable institutions will be aided materially. The Federation maintains upward of fifty institutions. It has a membership of ### persons.

“A considerable sum of the money pledged last January has already been submitted to the Federation. This will enable the building committee at noon to carry out the plans for which the campaign was conducted,” Mr. Kohn stated.

Initial steps to bind Ohio’s Jewish communities into an active state-wide organization whose ultimate duty will be to extend Jewish culture and education were taken when the Ohio branch of United Synagogues in session in Cleveland, O., formally organized into a state body.

Officers elected to direct operations of the first Ohio body included Solomon Ulmer. Cleveland, chairman and Ralph Hertz, Cleveland, secretary.