The Financial Position of the Warsaw Jewish Community

The President of the Warsaw Jewish Community, M. Mazur, has invited press representatives to meet him and has explained to them that the Community is in serious financial difficulties and contended that it has no choice but to reduce the salaries of its officials.

It is not true, he said, that the Community administration intends to appoint 35 new Rabbis. The administration only wants to fill ten of the twelve vacant Rabbinical posts, the salaries for which are already included in the budget.

The expenditure account for 1932, he said, has been fixed at 5,186,000 zlotys, which is only about 200,000 zlotys more than the previous year, while the income estimate is 2,200,000 zlotys.

The appointment of new Rabbis, M. Mazur claimed, is not a luxury, but a religious necessity. Warsaw, he said, has only eight official rabbis, while Lodz has 18, and Lublin, with only 45,000 Jews, has eight official Rabbis.

The Administration is not reducing salaries of 300 zlotys a month, he pointed out, but is cutting only the higher salaries by 10 to 20 per cent. This would affect a saving of about 250,000 zlotys.

M. Mazur stated that he has submitted a memorandum to the Ministry of Public Worship, taking a strong stand against the latest ordinance issued by the Ministry, which is responsible for restricting the sources of income and the activities of the Jewish Communities.

The Zionist opposition in the Warsaw Jewish Community has also arranged a conference of press representatives at which Mr. Elenberg sharply criticised the policy of the Agudist majority, especially its decisions to appoint new Rabbis, and to reduce the salaries of the Community officials.