Katz, Goldmann Reassured That Argentina Will Suppress Anti-semitism

Two assurances that official Argentine steps will be taken at Buenos Aires to counter anti-Semitic manifestations in Argentina and to outlaw political movements there promoting racial or religious discord were voiced in New York today.

Label A. Katz, international president of B’nai B’rith, just back from Argentina, announced he had been promised by Argentina’s Minister of the Interior, Dr. Rodolfo Martinez, that the latter would place before the Buenos Aires Cabinet a measure that would, among other aims, ban the anti-Semitic activities of groups like the neo-Nazi Tacuara movement. Cabinet approval of the draft would amount to the adoption of a law, since Parliament, recently dissolved, is not expected to reconvene until next year.

At the same time, Gen. Pedro Aramburu, former President of Argentina, and one of the sponsors of the newly formed United Front Against Anti-Semitism in Argentina, announced yesterday, voiced similar assurances here to Dr. Nahum Goldmann, president of the World Jewish Congress and Dr. Maurice L. Perlzweig, director of the WJC department of international affairs. Gen. Aramburu is here for a lecture tour.

Mr. Katz, who met in Buenos Aires last week with three top members of the Cabinet as well as President Jose Mario Guido, said the Argentine chief of state had given him “strong assurances” that the Government would act “firmly” to protect its Jewish citizens as to their physical safety as well as to their political rights. “The President said,” Mr. Katz reported, “that he has personally instructed police authorities to see to it that there would be strict enforcement of the law against anti-Semitic vandalism and violence.” Among others with whom the B’nai B’rith leader met, and from whom he had received such affirmations, were the Foreign Minister, Dr. Carlos M. Muniz, and Minister of the Economy Alvaro Alsogaray.

In his conference with Dr. Goldmann and Dr. Perlzweig, Gen. Aramburu expressed confidence that, as a result of constitutional decisions recently taken by the Argentinean Government, stability would be re-established in the country following the general elections scheduled for next year.

Declaring that the anti-Semitic totalitarian groups in his country were “a tiny minority” led by “obviously abnormal people,” the former Argentine President said suppression of anti-Semitism was “in substance a police problem, which could be dealt with without difficulty on short order. Such police action, he was confident, would come as a result of new appointments recently made by the Government.