Fear that there may be a repetition of the Campbell riots of 1931 when the Jewish quarter was destroyed by fire, prevails among the Jewish population here. The vigorous anti-Semitic agitation which former Prime Minister Eleutherios Venizelos persists in encouraging has made the Jewish citizenry wary and afraid. The Venizelos press is making every effort to spur on anti-Jewish groups to acts of violence.
On the pretext that the present premier, Panayoti Tsaldaris, who established Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, as an official holiday in Salonica, “is an anti-Christ”, the crusading newspapers score bitterly what they term the shameful “offensive against the Christian religion”. It is asserted that the Premier declared Yom Kippur as an official holiday because he had the support of the Jews against Venizelos in the last election.
The Makedonica warns that if authorities make an attempt to enforce Yom Kippur as a day of rest, considerable violence will result. It adds that the Jewish question in Salonica will then be liquidated once and for always.
At the same time, in an address delivered at a meeting held here, General George Kondylis, Minister of War, assured the Jewish population that so long as he remains in office, his administration will not tolerate trouble provoked at the expense of the Jews.
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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.
