Says President of Poland Has Right to Issue Law Abolishing Czaristic Restrictions on Jews

Taking advantage of the dissolution of the Polish parliament by President Moscicki, Deputy M. A. Hartglass, on behalf of the Jewish Deputies Club and the Jewish National Council, has written to the president pointing out to him that he now has the legal authority to publish a law abolishing the Czaristic restrictions against the Jews of Poland which are still in force. Deputy Hartglass has similarly written to the minister of justice.

The campaign to wipe from the Polish statute books this anachronistic legislation has been a cardinal point in the demands made by Polish Jewish leaders of successive Polish governments since the Republic was established. The negotiations for the removal of these restrictions appeared to have achieved success at the last session of parliament when the bill to void them passed a second reading, but that was as far as they got.

In 1922 the Jewish Deputies Club presented a memorandum to parliament urging the abolition of the Czaristic restrictions and tracing in great detail the history and effect of the restrictions. The memorandum pointed out that the restrictions were still in force despite the fact that the Polish constitution of 1921 guaranteed the equality of all citizens without regard to race or religion.

These Czaristic ordinances, some of which date back to 1843, curtail the elementary rights of the Jewish population such as restricting their right to the voluntary choice of residence, the right to freedom of trade and commerce and the right to hold certain offices. They also subject the Jews to more severe penalties than the Christian populace for civil and criminal offenses.