Now-editorial Notes

The arrest and imprisonment of Aba Achimeier, Zionist Revisionist, immediately after he had been freed by the court on the ground that there was no sufficient evidence against him in connection with the Arlosoroff murder, has stirred the Jewish population of Palestine. Achimeier is now detained without bail on the charge that he is a member of the B’rith Habiryonim, a secret revolutionary Revisionist organization. Other Revisionists charged with belonging to the B’rith Habiryonim had been released on bail of $125. The re-arrest of Achimeier under these conditions lends color to the suspicion that the British authorities in Palestine are seeking to discredit the Revisionists by all means.

Achimeier started a hunger strike which, he announced, he would continue until released on bail. Demonstrations against the imprisonment of Achimeier have assumed serious proportions, and a number of Revisionists have been injured by the police.

While it is true that the demonstrators have shown no restraint in criticizing the Palestine government, it is equally true that the Palestine authorities had provoked these demonstrations by the strange manner in which they treated the Revisionist leader after he had been cleared of the accusation of complicity in the Arlosoroff murder. The persecution of Achimeier at this time is regarded by his followers as an attempt to influence the course of the Arlosoroff murder trial.

The Palestine authorities are making a martyr of Achimeier. They will accomplish just the reverse of what they intended to accomplish.

THE BULGARIAN JEWS

It is reported that the Fascist coup d’etat in Bulgaria has thus far produced little fear among the Bulgarian Jews. Of late the Nazi agitation in Bulgaria led to the rise of anti-Semitism, but it has been confined to a very limited group. The Jewish community of Bulgaria, numbering about 45,000, is leading a normal life, free from organized and savage forms of Jew-hatred. The Jews have been treated there upon terms of equality and have participated in the affairs of the country in a manner that reflected credit both upon them and upon the Bulgarian people. The Ashkenazim and the Sephardim have cooperated in all charitable, educational and social work of the community. Though they have separate administrations, they are functioning under a unified Central Consistory of Bulgarian Jews. The Zionist organization has a strong following in Sofia. Of late a number of Jewish refugees from Germany came to Bulgaria. A considerable number of Jewish artists also found their way to Sofia, where they received a cordial welcome.

How the status of the Bulgarian Jews will be affected by the rise of Fascism, it is difficult to foretell, for it is not yet quite clear what branad of Fascism Bulgaria has adopted, and to what extent the Nazi machinations were involved in the coup d’etat.

Mussolini has for some time been seeking to extend his influence into the Balkans, and Bulgaria is the one Balkan State where he has met with a certain measure of success because of the growth of communism in that country. If the Nazis aided in bringing about the change of government in Bulgaria, the fate of the Bulgarian Jews is certainly not to be envied.

CHRISTIAN NON-ARYANS

The attempt of the “non-Aryans” in Germany to form a mutual aid society under the name of “Federation of Christian German Citizens,” has called forth a bitter attack in the Nazi press on the “parasitic activities of the Jews.” These “non-Aryans” are converted Jews or Germans with a certain amount of Jewish blood in their veins.

The Nazi newspapers, referring to the newly formed society, write:

“The foundation of this society is fresh evidence of the fact that Jews, like an evil weed, everlastingly seek new places for their parasitic activities with any and all means under all sorts of guises.”

In addition to expressing the fear that such a society would become the “roost of elements from hostile States,” the Nazi press attacks the society on the ground that “this Jewish organization constitutes a danger to vital interests of many true Germans who are still unemployed.”

It is estimated that this society represents about 2,500,000 of Christian non-Aryans.

Thus the Jews of Germany are attacked not only because of the Ost Juden who came to Germany after the war, but also because of the German Jews who had abandoned the Jewish faith years ago and tried to become “true Germans.”