The entire Jewish community of Yugo-Slavia was plunged in deepest sorrow today by the assassination of King Alexander I, who had long been regarded as one of the world’s rulers most friendly to the Jews.
All synagogues in Belgrade and throughout the country were draped in black and a month of mourning proclaimed with special prayers in the monarch’s memory.
Plans were also being made today for the erection in Belgrade and Jerusalem of monuments immortalizing Alexander’s deep interest in the fate of the Jewish people and in the movement to make of Palestine a Jewish national home.
Mixed with the sorrow at Alexander’s sudden death was a feeling of deep concern over the future. Alexander, despite his friendship with Germany, had resolutely forbidden and crushed all attempts of Nazi propagandists and other anti-Semites to stir up feeling against the Jews in Yugo-Slavia.
In the years of his rule he had protected Jewish rights against attacks such as had been made in other Balkan countries and had accorded the Jews full equality before the law.
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.
