(Jewish Telegraphic Agency)
The Supreme Council of the Jewish communities in the Republic of Poland, the body which is to be created to head the autonomous administration of the affairs of the Kehillahs and to be Polish Jewry’s official representative before the Government, will be composed of sixty-three members.
A decree issued yesterday by Ignac Moscicki, President of Poland, made considerable changes in the law promulgated previously to govern the organization of the Supreme Council.
In setting the number of members of the council at 63, the decree orders that instead of 14 lay members and 7 rabbis, the council is to be composed of 34 lay members and 17 rabbis. In addition, the Government has the right to appoint eight lay members and four rabbis to compose the council.
The new decree is viewed in Jewish nationalist circles as a move to considerably curtail the autonomous right of the council and the Kehillahs’ administration. The increase in the number of members to be appointed, no elected, was effected to meet the demand of the so-called assimilationist group, while the nationalistic group demanded that the entire membership of the Supreme Council is to be elected by the Kehillahs and the number of the council members be set at 70 to correspond to the number of the ancient Sandhedrin in Jerusalem.
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