The New Jewish Communities Draft Law in Prussia: Text of Opposition Declaration by Zionist Represent

The draft law regulating the affairs of the synagogue communities in Prussia is in all its parts an intolerable retrogression against the existing legal position, says the resolution adopted by the conference of Zionist members of Jewish Community Boards and Representative Assemblies in Prussia and other parts of Germany, the members of the Fraction of the Jewish People’s Party in the Prussian Federation of Jewish Communities and the members of the Jewish Communities Commission of the German Zionist Federation, which has just been held here (already reported in substance in yesterday’s J.T.A. Bulletin).

The draft law, it proceeds, has been drawn up in complete disregard of the unanimous vote of the authorised representative body of Prussian Jewry. The draft law has the effect of breaking up the unity of Jewry, by the fact that it permits to a greater extent than hitherto, the establishment of separatist communities. The facilities which it gives for leaving the Jewish Communities are a menace to the existence, the outward security and the inner development possibilities of the Jewish Communities. The draft law also places in grave danger the principle of equal rights of all members of the Community, which is for us the basis of a Jewish community, and which we can never surrender. The draft law makes it possible for communities to deprive Jews who are not of German citizenship of their rights as members of the Community. We see this draft law as a move directed against the existence and the development of Judaism, and will fight against it with all determination. We wish to make it clear that the desires of the Prussian Jews on this matter have been expressed in the decisions adopted in 1928 by the Federation of Jewish Communities in Prussia.