Jews with at least one Gentile grandparent who were converted to Christianity before Jan. 1, 1938, will be considered non-Jews under the new legislation further limiting Jewish participation in Hungary’s economic and cultural life, it was learned tonight. Hungarian Nazis are showing, great irritation over what they term the “liberality” of the proposed laws and demand that they be modeled after those in Germany, where anyone with one Jewish grandparent is considered a Jew.
The proposed legislation would reduce the activities of Jews in intellectual and cultural pursuits — the press, theater, etc. — from 20 to seven per cent. In business and industry Jews would be permitted to participate to an extent varying between seven and 20 per cent.
The new legislation should not be based on racial principles but on “a Christian and Hungarian conception,” Justinian Georg Cardinal Seredi, Catholic Primate of Hungary, said in an address here. “We Hungarians,” he declared, “should remain faithful to the national principle of St. Stephen, which is based not on race but on a Christian and Hungarian conception.”
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