Election of both Jewish candidates of the Democrat Party to the Grand National Assembly, the Turkish Parliament, in last Sunday’s national elections was confirmed today. They will be the only Jewish members of the new Parliament which will be the first in the history of the Turkish Republic to have more than one Jewish member.
The new Jewish deputies are Isaac Altabev, 62, president of the B’nai B’rith in Istanbul and chairman of the central committee of Jewish charitable and social institutions in the city, and Yusuf Salman. 69, only Jewish member of the Istanbul City Council and former secretary-general of the Grand Rabbinate’s Lay Council.
Jewish voters in Istanbul apparently gave strong support to the incumbent Democrat Party in preference to the Republican People’s Party, the main opposition, and the Freedom Party which, it had been anticipated, would attract many Jewish voters. The issues in the election were primarily domestic.
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