Newspaper accusations in the United States and Britain that Spain has been intolerant of Jews and anti-Semitic were denied here today by Daniel F, Baroukh, president of the Jewish community of Madrid, who is currently in the Philippines.
In a statement to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Sr. Baroukh noted that two years ago he was granted an audience by the Spanish Chief of State, the first such interview granted a Jew in Spain in 450 years. He said he came away from the meeting “impressed” with Gen. Franco’s words and message to the people of Israel.
Sr. Baroukh recalled that two years ago the Spanish Government gave its permission for the holding of public High Holiday services in a Madrid hotel and that a Spanish Government representative attended the services, as did leading Spanish Catholics, representatives of the American embassy and American Jews. In a reference to the refusal to grant a permit to hold similar services in a Madrid hotel this past Rosh Hashanah, Sr. Baroukh said a mistake was committed by his secretary in Sr. Baroukh’s absence.
The head of the Spanish Jewish community stressed that during the Nazi regime many Jews were saved by being admitted to Spain. He listed various other gestures by the Spanish Government toward the facilitating of religious services and instruction, and acknowledged its presentation of a “magnificent collection of books” for the projected Sephardic Library in Jerusalem. Sr. Baroukh said that there are now 35,000 Jews in Spain.
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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.
