A storm of protest in the Brazilian press and in the municipal administration of this capital city followed the refusal of Mayor Alim Pedro to implement a decision of the city council to name a street for Dr. Theodor Herzl. Mayor Pedro, who is of Lebanese descent, vetoed the city council decision, asserting that Dr. Herzl is “an unknown named.”
The decision by the council to name the street was taken last October 21 on the motion of Raimundo Margalhaes, a Socialist member of the council and a popular Brazilian writer, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Dr. Herzl’s death.
The Mayor’s action was sharply criticized at a meeting of the council and Councilman Margalhaes was joined by Councilman Levy Neves, who had been president of the Council at the time the Herzl resolution was adopted, in a demand that the Mayor rescind his veto The press charged the Mayor with bringing anti-Semitism into city affairs.
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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.
