M. Jan Chakste, the President of the Latvian Republic, has started libel actions against four anti-Semitic newspapers
which have been attacking him for having ordered a portrait of himself painted by a Jewish artist, Jan Motzkin.
On the same day, obviously by arrangement, all the anti-Semitic newspapers in Latvia published an article under the heading “President has portrait painted by Jew”. The President was strongly censured for having gone to a Jewish artist for his portrait. Some of the statements made against the President in the article were highly libellous. The trial is due to open this week.
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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.
