Jews today faced dismissal from positions in Italy’s school system before Oct. 1 under an order issued by Education Minister Giuseppe Bottai requiring that candidates for posts each year must present proof of non-Jewish origin. In the future appointments of candidates for positions of teacher, principal and professor must be renewed at the beginning of each school year.
In special cases of “particular national merit” Jews will be permitted to remain in the schools. These cases will be referred to Minister Bottai personally.
Meanwhile, Prof. Mario Jona, of Ancona, for many years vice-president of the Provincial Council of Corporations, a Fascist institution, was informed by the authorities that his “resignation” had been accepted.
In the wake of Italy’s census of Jews, newspapers emphasized that Trieste, which according to the 1931 census contained 3,200 Italian Jews, 1,500 foreign Jews and 1,000 residents considered of Jewish origin, had the largest Semitic population. Of the city’s 250,000 inhabitants, it was pointed out, 2.4 per cent were Jews, but Jews comprised 50 percent of Trieste’s insurance workers and 80 percent of its other commercial personnel. Since Austro-German Anschluss the city’s Jewish population has increased markedly, it was noted.
Alessandria, in Piedmont, was found to have a little more than three to the thousand. Aosta, it was stated, has only seven Jews in a total population of 26,000.
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.
