The Jewish population of Turkey, alarmed at the increase in this country of anti-Jewish Nazi propaganda, has sent a delegation from the Jewish community board to Angora to protest against such propaganda and to urge that all possible measures be taken to end it.
The immediate cause for the action by the community was the appearance here of a Hitlerite journal entitled Milli Inkilap. The pages of the publication are full of racial hatred and incitement against the Jewish people.
GERMAN FIRMS ADVERTISE
All the advertisements in Milli Inkilap are of German firms in this city, and the effect of the whole has created disturbance. The general Turkish press, however, repudiates Nazi propaganda and asserts that the policies of the Turkish government are national and not racial in nature.
A recent case in-point is an article in the newspaper Akcham, in which the writer declares, after enumerating the various contributions of Turkish Jewry to the development of world civilization:
“With regard to modern Turkey, it must be said, and with great pleasure, that the Turkish language and the Turkish national spirit are constantly striking ever firmer roots among Turkish Jewry.”
The decision of the Jewish community of Smyrna to conduct prayers in the synagogue in Turkish instead of in Hebrew was reported by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency on April 23. No reason for the change was given at the time, but it was generally taken to be an indication of the growth of the Turkish nationalist feeling among the Jewish population.
Clashes between groups which demanded that Hebrew remain the language of instruction in the Jewish community schools and those which advocated the introduction of Turkish there, preceded the Smyrna decision.
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.
