60,000 Threatened by Hungarian Anti-semitic Bill

Experts estimated today that 60,000 Jews and “non-Aryans” will be eliminated from Hungary’s economic and cultural life if the recently introduced anti-Jewish bill is enacted. The proposed law, it was stated, will leave to the entire younger generation of Jews and “non-Aryans” no prospects but emigration. Under the present law, which restricted Jewish participation in the nation’s economic and cultural life to 20 per cent, only about 12,000 to 15,000 Jews were affected.

A solemn appeal to Christian fellow citizens to treat the Jews with justice was voiced, meanwhile, by Court Councillor Samuel Stern in the name of Hungarian Jewry at a special meeting of the Budapest Jewish Community, attended by delegates from synagogue congregations and Jewish institutions.

Dr. Lundwig Lang, Jewish member of the Upper House, rejected the anti-Jewish bill from the Hungarian viewpoint, declaring that Jewish elimination from the nation’s economic system threatended the country’s general interests while defining the Jews as a separate “ethnical group” was not only a humiliation but disavowal of St. Stephen’s Hungarian social ideals. He also branded the bill absurd on the ground that the Hungarians were not “Aryans” but “Tranans” by race. He expressed confidence that the bill would not become law.

Representatives of the professions and trade, addressing the meeting, stressed Jewish contributions to Hungarian cultural and economic development. Deputy Ernst Brody declared the nation’s economic problems could not be solved by creation of a ghetto and demanded the right for the Jews to live as free and equal citizens in a “free and happy fatherland.”