The final draft of the new freedom-of-worship law which would give legal status in Spain to synagogues for the first time since the expulsion of the Jews in 1492, was approved here yesterday by the Council of Ministers which was attended also by Generalissimo Francisco Franco.
The law, which has been in preparation for 10 years, would permit synagogues and non-Catholic churches in Spain to identify themselves openly by signs. It will now be debated by the Cortes, Spain’s Parliament, and its passage there is expected by fall. There are 6,000 Jews and about 35,000 Protestants today in Spain. The new law would extend to them freedom of “external worship.”
Under the old laws, synagogues, churches and other religious property of both Jews and Protestants had been registered in the names of individuals or private corporations, since no non-Catholic religious societies were permitted. Synagogues and non-Catholic churches were also forbidden under the old laws to identify their houses of worship by appropriate signs.
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