{span}ew{/span} Warsaw Jewish Community to Be Elected in May: End of First Democratically Elected Je

New elections to the Warsaw Jewish Community have been ordered by the Minister of Education and Public Worship to take place on May 27th.

The existing Warsaw Jewish Community is the first to have been elected on a democratic basis, but during the whole of its existence since 1924, it has been the scene of conflicts between the various parties, principally between the Agudists and the Zionists, who are the two largest Parties, and share the Presidencies of the Board and the Executive, ex-Deputy Farbstein, being President of the Executive and the Agudist leader, ex-Deputy Kirschbraun, being President of the Board. There have repeatedly been deadlocks in the Community, which as a result has been for months at a time unable to function, and recently the Jewish Press of Warsaw has been urging that the Community should be dissolved and fresh elections held which might result in one of the Parties obtaining a working majority to facilitate the conduct of communal affairs.

At the first meeting of the Board in July 1924, there was a deadlock over the refusal of the Government to allow the proceedings to be conducted other than in Polish, and for two whole years, until 1926, there was no further meeting of the Board.

In 1926, the Community began to function, but a few months after, the Minister of Education annulled the election of the Presidium of the complaint of the Agudists, and there was a fresh crisis. A few months went by before the dispute between the Agudists and the Zionists on this matter was settled, the respective elections of ex-Deputy Farbetain and ex-Deputy Kirschbraun being agreed to.

On several occasions since then, it was found impossible to pass the Budget and once the Executive of the Community seriously considered submitting the unapproved Budget to the Minister of Education and Public Worship to pass it so that the Community could get on with its work. In the end a compromise arrangement was concluded between the Parties. Repeatedly, the Zionist, Agudist and Left representatives entered into various combinations in order to prevent the inclusion in the budget of subventions for the Hebrew Tarbuth schools, the Chedorim and the Yiddishist schools respectively, Whenever the budget question came up, each party in turn combined with an opposing party to defeat the proposal of the third party. The Zionists, supported by the Left, voted against giving a subsidy to the Chedorim, The Agudists then combined with the Left to defeat the Zionist proposal for a subsidy to the Hebrew Tarbuth schools, and the Agudists and the Zionists then joined to defeat the proposal of the Left Parties for a subvention to the Yiddishist schools.

Dissatisfaction with the existing conditions has been expressed very forcibly in the last few days at the meetings of the Board of the Community and repeated demands have been made on all sides that the Community should be dissolved and fresh elections hold.