The anti-Jewish outbreak in Mexico hits not only the 500 Jewish street-traders who have been driven from the market places, but thousands of Jews, the manufacturers, the importers and the dealers from whom the Jewish street traders bought their goods on credit and indirectly all other Jews who made their living in any way by working for Jewish institutions or organisations which were maintained by the Jewish population, and which, as a result of the economic crisis, will have to close down, says a correspondent form Mexico City writing in the Yiddish daily, the “Day”, here.
It was as near a pogrom as anything can be, he writes, when on the morning of April 30th., the Jewish stall-holders coming to lay out their wares as usual on their stalls, were surprised to see the stands of the Mexican market-traders all decorated with Mexican flags, although it was no festival, and presently a big procession headed by banners and bands came up
shouting “Down with the aliens; out with the Jews”. The demonstrators took possession of the market place and the leaders delivered violent antisemitic speeches. Suddenly a big force of police descended on the Jewish stall-holders, and with the mob shouting and whistling, drove them with blows out of the market place. One Jewish stall-holder, Israel Lieberman, who attempted to collect his goods before leaving, was beaten till he was covered in blood.
The Secretary of the Jewish Relief Organisation in Mexico, Mr. Moses Glikowski, sees no way out of the difficulty, the correspondent says. The treasury is already empty, and the very people who kept the organisation going are now dependent on its aid. The whole of Jewish communal life in Mexico, with all the laboriously-created institutions built up by the Jewish immigrants in the last ten years, is in danger of collapsing. The Jewish Relief Organisation has no funds to fall back upon. The Jewish credit societies and all the other Jewish institutions are penniless. The only Jewish school in Mexico will have to close down, because the people who contributed to its upkeep are unable to make any further contributions.
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