Salonica Jews Protest Against the Separate Electoral College

(J.T.A. Mail Service)

The question of Jewish representation in the next Greek Senate, elections to which are to take place in the first fortnight of December, has again been agitating the Jewish population of Salonica, because the Government bill submitted to the Chamber of Deputies by the Minister of the Interior, M. Zavitzanos, to regulate the elections to the Senate retains among its other provisions, the principle of the separate electoral college for the Jews of Salonica, giving them the right to elect one Senator in proportion to their numbers.

The Salonica Jewish Community and the Jewish organizations here, which have been strenuously objecting to this segregation of the Jewish voters, and obtained a promise from M. Venizelos, before the last Parliambentary elections, that the separate Jewish electoral college would be abolished, sent a delegation to Athens consisting of Deputies Matalon and Bessantchi, and Messrs, Asher Mallach and David Florentin, members of the Salonica Jewish Community Council, to demand the repeal of this segregating measure.

M. Zavitzanos, in receiving the delegation, declared that he was a great friend of the Jews. He told them that his father had published in Corfu, in Greek and Italian, a work directed against the blood libel. He explained that M. Venizelos intended, by retaining the separate Jewish electoral college, to guarantee the representation of the Salonica Jews in the Senate, and if the Jews were opposed to it, he was prepared to reconsider the question.

As a result of the interview, the delegation has telegraphed to the Salonica Jewish Community and the other Jewish organizations associated with the movement for the abolition of the separate Jewish electoral college, advising them to instruct the Jewish Deputies to present in the Chamber, during the debate on the bill for the establishment of the Senate, a series of amendments already presented by the deputation to the Government, which will approve them, so that they will be certain of obtaining a majority, and may even be passed unanimously.

Dr. Leo J. Frachtenberg, formerly Director of the Southern Region of the United Palestine Appeal, has been transferred to Chicago, where he is Director of the Midwest Region, consisting of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, and Nebraska, according to an announcement made by the National Office of the United Palestine Appeal, New York City.

A drive for $10,000 for the Hebrew Institute in Mamaroneck, N.Y., was officially launched under the leadership of Morris Stern. The money will be used to add a school and gymnasium to the present building in Mamaroneck and to make improvements to the interior of the building.