With some pressure evidently being exerted to obtain a modification of the racial laws in Italy, the Ill Tevere, notorious anti-Semitic organ came out today with a warning indicating that some groups in the Fascist party are opposed to any relaxation of the existing anti-Jewish restrictions.
“The reason why the Jewish question has never been solved in the past, is because there has invariably appeared a reef in the racial laws to which shipwrecked Jews have clung tenaciously until saved”, the Fascist organ writes. “The trouble with the racial laws lies in the fact that they always allow for exceptions in their enforcement. These exceptions have in turn become as much a part of the law as the anti-Semitic measures themselves. That has been the case for centuries. It is because of these failures of the racial laws in the past that we have the war today.”
A modification of the racial laws in Italy, although it may be a retreat in comparison with the anti-Jewish persecutions in Germany, would not come as a surprise. Some form of modification has long been expected as a result of the Vatican’s persistent efforts. The Pope is especially interested in the mitigation of the plight of mixed marriages and converted Jews.
It is believed here that Jews married to non-Jaws will be permitted to “Aryanize” themselves. Little leniency is however expected for converted Jews. Nevertheless, a considerable number of Italian Jews are now embracing Catholicism with the hope of profiting by the Pope’s intervention. Mussolini himself is known to have little sympathy for Jews embracing Catholicism with the hope of profiting by the Pope’s intervention. Massolini himself is known to have little sympathy for Jews embracing Catholicism to better their position.
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.
