With hundreds of small Jewish communities facing bankruptcy, a drastic reorganization of Jewish communal life is to be expected as a result of Nazi assaults on Jewish economy. The boycott aimed at individual businessmen already affects the income of community organizations, tending to destroy the only machinery for self support and promotion of emigration, which is ardently desired by the Nazis.
The effects of the abolition of the autonomy of Jewish communities, decreed two months ago, are now becoming clear. The consequences are, first, that Jews are no longer automatically becoming community members; second, that State agencies can no longer be used as an intermediary for communal tax collection, and, third, that the communities no longer enjoy exemption from corporation, capital and real estate taxes for synagogues.
These expenses are draining the last resources of the small communities, which in the last few years have existed only with the help of the Reichsvertretung der Juden in Deutschland. Scores of them have already dissolved, and synagogues have been sold or yielded to tax collectors.
It is believed that a drastic cut in the number of Jewish communities is unavoidable. A thousand communities last year collected 25,000,000 Reichsmark to defray costs of education, welfare and worship, and half the costs of retraining and emigration, the other half of which is furnished by Jewry abroad. In. view of the confiscatory policy which is expected to follow the registration of Jewish property, not much money can be raised for emigration and support of the growing number of destitute. Therefore, the burden of Jewry abroad is likely to increase.
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.
