The entire inventory of the Chief Rabbinate has been sold at public auction by the government because the Rabbinate has been unable to pay five thousand Turkish liras as income tax on amounts that the Rabbinate received during the past years as various donations. Fortunately, the bulk of the auctioned articles have been purchased by Jews, who have presented them to the Rabbinate.
But the fact remains that the government’s demands for an income tax on donations made for religious purposes as well as the irreverence shown to the Jewish religion, as demonstrated by the public sale of the belongings of the Rabbinate, created a great excitement among the Jewish population. Many articles belonging to the Jewish hospital Or Chaim were similarly auctioned because the institution, supported by private subscriptions, has been unable to raise its tax of 30,000 Turkish liras.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
