Polish Jewry is Split in Many Factions As Parliamentary Election Date Approaches

(By Our Warsaw Correspondent)

The life-term of the Polish Sejm and Senate expired several months ago and with their dissolution Marshal Pilsudski’s Government was left in sole possession of power, without a Parliament to control its actions. Some sceptics shook their heads over the situation and predicted that Marshal Pilsudski would proclaim himself Dictator and dispense with further Parliamentary elections. The predictions of the sceptics have proven to be without ground. The elections have been fixed entirely in accordance with the Constitution, and the country is now in the midst of a violent election campaign.

The Jewish representation in the last Parliament was very considerable. There were 35 Jewish representatives in the Sejm and nine in the Senate. With one exception, the Jewish representatives were united in the Jewish Club. Although they were divided among themselves into repeatedly hostile groupings, Zionists, Mizrachists, ilitachduth, Agudists, and non-Partisans, they were, however, pledged to stand together as a united body in the face of the outside world. This agreement held good during the entire life of the previous Parliament. There were times, indeed, as for instance, when Deputy Gruenbaum and his supporters fought against the Polish-Jewish Agreement, when the Club seemed on the verge of breaking up. But always it was found possible to save the situation at the last moment.

With the dissolution of Parliament, all this unity came to an end, and the Jewish Club went their way without a good-bye, and certainly without a “see-you-again.” They all shared the fervent hope that the next Parliament would not know the majority of their former colleagues.

IN THE TOILS OF CONTROVERSY

Polish Jewry has been plunged into a futy of controversy and conflict. The allies of yesterday, even the members of one party, are now fighting against each other. Parties have split up and Polish Jewry is veritably in a state of chaos. There is a Jewish proverb which says “Like Christian, like Jew.” It is certainly to the point in this case. Exactly the same thing that is happening among the Polish parties is happening among the Jewish parties.

The present Polish Government, naturally, is anxious that the elections should be decided in its favor, meaning that the majority in the next Parliament should be its loyal supporters. And accordingly the Government has been trying to divide the political parties among themselves in order to form a solid bloc of its supporters and to a certain extent it has succeeded. It has succeeded in splitting the biggest party in the last Sejm, the National Democrats (Anti-Semites), which consisted of estate owners, wealthy farmers, big industrialists, artisans and shopkeepers. The old leader of the party, the notorious anti-Semitic priest Lutoslavski, is dead. And the former Minister of Education, M. Glombinski, the author of the famous Numerus Clausus Circular, and the ex-Premier M. Stanislav Grabski, the author of the Polish-Jewish Agreement, have parted company.

PARTIES HOSTILE TO JEWS

The same thing has happened with the powerful Peasants’ Party, “Piast,” headed by the famous “Premier without a Tie,” the peasant Vincenti Witos. In the last Parliament, this Party formed the Center, but in hostility to the Jews, it did not take a back-seat as compared with the National Democratic Party of the Right. A good many of the leaders of the Party have now deserted it, and what is worse, masses of peasants have gone over to the Radical Peasants’ Party “Vizvolenic.” The other parties of the Right, the Christian Nationalists (estate owners), the Christian Democrats (workers and artisans), and the Catholic Democrats, have all been riven by desertions. Despite the inclusion of the word “Democrat” in their names, they were all as Jew-baiting in their activity as the rest.

There was one other thing which united them all-their common hatred of Marshal Pilsudski. But Pilsudski has been successful in his attempt to divide the Polish political parties and to detach big sections and to group them together as a solid phalanx supporting his policy. To some extent he has succeeded because the parties and many of their leaders were compromised in having exploited their official positions for personal advantage, and they were anxious to drop out of their previous associations.

And now we come to the question of the minorities. The last Parliament had about eighty Deputies belonging to the National Minorities-Ukrainians, White Russians, Jews, Germans. This important group secured election as a result of the technical election bloc organized by the minorities in the last elections. This time strenuous efforts were made in Government circles to prevent the minorities securing so large a representation in the next Parliament. The most likely way of doing this was to make it impossible for the National Minorities to form another bloc. The first approach was made to the weakest member of the Minorities Bloc. the Jews. Many arguments were used to persuade the Jews not to join the Minorities Bloc. The chief of these arguments was: You Jews have declared yourselves loyal citizens of the State. The other Minorities, principally the Slavic Minorities, are not. They have territorial claims. How can you work with people who are fighting against the impregnability of the State?

AGUDAH EXCLUDED FROM BLOC

Then the Zionist leaders in Poland decided against accepting the Agudath Israel into the Bloc of National Minorities. The Agudah, being excluded from the Bloc, came forward with a scheme for the formation of an idependent Jewish Bloc outside the Bloc of National Minorities. The adherents of the Minorities Bloc contend that their bloc is essential because with the present Election Ordinance and the present method of dividing up constituencies, the jews, standing independently, even with all the Jewish parties united, can secure at most ten or twelve seats, while if they join in the bloc of National Minorities, they will be able to secure 20 or 25 seats. And they use also the argument of working together with the Congress of National Minorities in Europe, which meets in Geneva.

The opponents of the Minorities Bloc who stand for a purely Jewish Bloc, argue that it is not to the advantage of the Jews to join with the Slavic Minorities in Poland who have territorial claims, while the Jews are interested in a big and economically powerful Poland. Also, they say, the Jews must not fight against Marshal Pilsudski and his supporters, who are the most formidable opponents of the reactionaries and anti-Semites. The enemy of our enemy, they claim, is by implication our friend. And further, they say, why did we Jews enter into a Polish-Jewish Agreement with an anti-Semitic Government, and why should we not enter into such an Agreement with the Pilsudski-ites, who are not anti-Semites?

To this, the Minority-bloc adherents reply: We are only entering into a technical election bloc with the other minorities. After the elections, we Jews will conduct our own independent policy, without heed of the policy of the Slavic minorities, as in the last Sejm. We are not opposing the present Government, but we do not want the Government to order us about and to tell us what we are to do. As for the Polish-Jewish Agreement, once burnt twice shy.

Anyhow, no matter what the cause, no matter who is right, the outstanding fact is that the Jewish front is divided into warring factions. There is a Jewish bloc within the Bloc of National Minorities and there is a General Jewish National Bloc. The first consists of the Zionists, Mizrachists, Hitachduth, the Democratic Folkist Party headed by Dr. Shabad, and the Federation of Jewish Artisans. The second consists of the Agudath Israel, the Folkist Party under Deputy Priludski, and the Jewish Small Traders. The Zionists of Galicia under Dr. Reich and Dr. Thon have put up a separate election list, The Left Poale Zion is standing on its own. And the Right Poale Zion too is standing alone.

The Jewish voter will have to be a very clever and politically educated person to be able to steer his way among this labyrinth of programs, manifestos and election blocs. It is impossible to foresee which of these many Jewish blocs is going to win. Most probably they will all win in the way in which a famous general once remarked that if we win any more victories like this, we shall be lost.

There are seven different Jewish election lists. And there are twenty-seven non-Jewish election lists. There will be 34 election lists all fighting against each other. It is certainly a most abnormal state of things, if one recalls that a country like the United States has only two important parties and Great Britain only three.

It is impossible to predict which of the Jewish parties will secure a greater measure of representation in the new Parliament, but it is safe to say that among the Jewish representatives who will be returned will be the former Deputies Gruenbaum, Reich, Rosmarin, Kirschbraun, Prilutzki, and Rabbi Thon.

As for the Jewish Labor Parties, they have little chance of securing even one seat. Had there been an election bloc between the Bund and the Poale Zion, they might have done better, but without such a bloc, neither of them is likely to secure any representation.