World Press Digest

The Sunday Referee of London carries the following editorial under the headline, “Strange Requests”:

We have received, above the sigiature of Mr. Geoffrey Toye, managing director of the Royal lowing request for a correction:

“It has been stated in the Press that Mr. Heddle Nash, who took the part of Almaviva in the Command Performance of ‘II Barbiere di Siviglia,’ is a Jew.

“Such a statement is liable to do Mr. Nash serious injury in his career and may lead to the cancellation of his contracts in certain foreign countries.”

The italics are ours. So is this comment: While we are ready to believe that the contracts of Jewish artists are likely to be cancelled in certain foreign countries, we had no idea that the “non’Aryan” clause of the Nazi pogromists was operative in this country. Nor were we aware that an allegation of Jewish origin was calculated to injure an artist under the management of Covent Garden—an enterprise which is so solidly supported by British Jewry.

As an Englishman, Mr. Heddle Nash will appreciate the justice of this comment.

GLASGOW COMMENT ON SEPHARDIC JEWS

The Glasgow Evening Times, in an editorial devoted to the Sephardic Jews, says:

They are no ordinary Jews. No Sephardite has ever been known to keep a pawnshop. In fact, they do not show special talent for commerce and banking, but they shine in other ways. Gambetta, Lord Disraeli, Isaac Rufus (Governor of India), Cardozo of the United States Supreme Court; and Nasi de Naxos, the Turkish Prince, were all Sephardites.

Instead of following Zionist ambitions they long to be able to return to “Sefard”—i.e., Iberia, the country whose language they still speak and which they claim as their own. There is no doubt that in 1492, when some 250,000 of them were expelled from Spain, Spain lost many of her most loyal subjects. For, as the Sephardite writer M. Esturgo points out, these were perfectly good Spaniards in every way, though Jews by religion, while many of those who stayed at home were of Jewish families, but had, nominally at least, adopted the Christian faith.

This accounts for the number of Hebrew family names found in Spain today. It is true that some followed their brethren into exile later on, preferring this to the alternative of remaining in Spain and pretending to be Christians. But, in spite of this fact, Senor Estrugo claims that there is less Semitic blood in the Sepphardites today than in the Christian population of certain parts of Spain.