Lederer, Hungarian Jewish Leader, Drops Dead when Government Wants Him to Rebuke Jewish Protest Agai

Party Lenders in Memorandumto Parliament, Charge Government with Responsibility for Riots (Jewish Telegraphic Agency)

Alexander Lederer, president of the Kehillah of Budapest, for many years a leader in Hungarian Jewish affairs and an out-standing patriot of Hungary, dropped dead yesterday when he was confronted with the demand of the government to take a stand against the Jewish protests concerning the numerus clausus in the country. He was sixty years old.

His death occurred following a stormy conference with Count Kiebelsberg, Minister of Education who, it is stated, demanded of the Kehillah president that he issue a protest in behalf of the Jewish community to the Secretariat of the League of Nations against the memorandum on the numerus clausus in Hungary submitted by Lucien Wolf, secretary of the Joint Foreign Committee of the Anglo-Jewish Association and the Board of Jewish Deputies, which will be brought up at the forthcoming session of the Council of the League.

Simultaneously, the government declined to guarantee the protection of the Jewish students at the University of Budapest. The Jewish students evaded an attack prepared to be made on them today. They were, however, the victims of many insults when they attempted to return to their classrooms, fearing that their continued absence would cause them to lose credit for the entire semester.

Count Paul Teleki. president of the undergraduate society, informed the government that his organization will not act against the anti-Jewish riots.

Another dramatic turn in the present fight for the modification of the numerus clausus occurred yesterday when leaders of all the liberal parties signed a memorandum submitted to both houses of parliament in which the government is charged with the responsibility for the anti-Jewish riots in the colleges. The memorandum was composed by Joseph Vesey, editor-in-chief of the “Pester Lloyd,” a Jew who had been a prominent leader of the assimilationist group and a staunch supporter of the government. The memorandum demands that the government give guarantees for the future maintenance of peace in the colleges.

The Budapest Kehillah submitted a memorandum to parliament, urging that legal guarantees be enacted to provide protection for the Jewish students at the colleges.