A charge that American Jews are intervening in internal Germany affairs is made in the Easter issue of the “Voelkische Beobachter” which publishes a letter dated March 28 from the German foreign minister to the German minister of the interior referring to a complaint made to the German ambassador in Washington by the president of the American Jewish Committee regarding the resolution in the Bavarian “Landtag” to prohibit schechita and a letter to the German ambassador from the managing director of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency calling attention to the schechita question and also to the desecration of Jewish cemeteries in Germany.
According to the “Beobachter,” the foreign minister wrote to the minister of the interior as follows:
“The German ambassador in Washington (Baron von Prittwitz) reports that he received from the president of the American Jewish Committee a complaint concerning the resolution in the Bavarian “Landtag” to prohibit schechita and one from the chief editor of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency about the schechita question and the desecration of Jewish cemeteries in Germany.
“They request that the German government and the Bavarian government should take note of the unfavorable feeling which this has aroused in Jewish circles in the United States. Considering that schechita prohibition laws are also contemplated in other parts of Germany, such as Saxony, the ministry of the interior is requested to draw the attention of the German states to the fact that there is unfavorable feeling of a large part of the population of the United States which may have a very unfavorable political effect.
“The declaration which the minister of justice made on behalf of the government, October 18 at a meeting of the Central Union of German Citizens of the Jewish Faith has been communicated to the German embassy in Washington.”
When informed of this dispatch, Dr. Cyrus Adler, president of the American Jewish Committee, gave the Jewish Telegraphic Agency a copy of his letter to Baron von Prittwitz dated. February 28 in which after calling the Ambassador’s attention to the schechita question in Bavaria he said “we respectfully ask you, if you deem such a course proper and helpful, to indicate to the Bavarian government and also to that of the Reich that legislation of this character has wounded the sensibilities and has offended the consciences of a large body of American citizens in every way friendly to the people of Germany.” Nothing in Dr. Adler’s letter could be construed as saying that the anti-schechita legislation would “have a very unfavorable political effect.”
The letter from the managing editor of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency to Baron von Prittwitz merely called his attention to the question of the anti-schechita legislation and the desecration of Jewish cemeteries and asked him for a statement on the matter.
In a telephone conversation today Baron von Prittwitz confirmed the two letters.
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.
