J.D.B. News Letter

By our Lemberg Correspondent)

During a recent debate in the German Reichstag on the statement of policy of Chanceller Muller-Franken, Socialist, the newly appointed Federal Minister of Finance in the Reich Cabinet, Dr. Rudolph Hilferding was interrupted by one of the anti-Semitic deputies, who shouted at him, "Galician Jew."

The scandal in parliament has attracted wide attention and was broadly discussed in the German press for Dr. Hilferding is not a new personage in German politics, having formerly been occupant of the same post in the previous government during the Republican regime.

Obviously, the anti-Semitic deputy who rudely interrupted the Minister of Finance did not have the interests of a Jewish "who’s who" at heart and his motive was certainly not to provide accurate data. It seems, however, that he was not misinformed.

Dr. Rudolph Hilferding, though fully Germanized, is indeed the son of a well-known Chassidic family of Eastern Galicia. His Jewish origin he shares with the Polish Minister to the League of Nations, Stanislaw Sokal, with the difference, however, that while the Polish Minister is a convert to Christianity, Dr. Hilferding has not deserted the Jewish fold.

An examination into the records of the vital statistics of the Jewish community in Lemberg and the statements of older members of the community here depict the carreer of the present German Minister of Finance in the following manner. Rudolph is a native of Brody, the son of a well-to-do aristocratic Jewish family which has widely branched out in many cities in Galicia. The older inhabitants of Lemberg still remember well the great lumber firm Liz and Rosenkranz. The head of the company was Chaim Liz, who was the owner of a large house at 18 Sykstuska Street, Lemberg. One of the daughters of Chaim Liz was married to Bronislaw Hilferding, a rich Polish Jewish merchant of Brody.

The real estate record department of the Lemberg city government shows that in 1880 a part of the house at 1-8 Sykstuska Street was transferred by Chaim Liz to Bronislaw Hilferding, constituting a part of his dowry given his daughter. Bronislaw Hilferding, the records show, later sold the part he owned to the other heirs of Chaim Liz. Hilferding himself moved to Vienna with his family, where he engaged in the export of lumber on a large scale. Two sons and three daughters constituted the family of Bronislaw Hilferding.

The oldest son, Rudolph, took an active part in the work of the Austrian Social-Democratic party and was elected General Secretary of the twentieth Vienna district division of the party. True to the tendency then prevailing in the successful Jewish class, young Hilferding kept aloof from the affairs of the Jewish community in Vienna and finally, in 1902, he officially left the Vienna Kehillah, declaring himself to be Konfesionlose. Although he has never embraced Christianity, Hilferding never was willing to admit that he was a Jew, preferring to present himself as an Austrian.

In 1909, Hilfeding emigrated to Germay where he was given an important post in the central committee of the German Social-Democratic party in Berlin. He soon gained wide popularity in labor and liberal circles. His contributions to the theory of economics and particularly his book, "Das Kapital." which was published in 1921, called forth wide comment and since then Hilferding’s opinions on financial and economic questions were sought. His first government appointment with the portfolio of the Finance Ministry he received in the government of Scheidemann.

Now, when the Socialist leader Mueller-Franken, created after the recent elections the "Cabinet of Personalities." Hilferding was again invited to assume the portfolio of finance in the German Federal Government.

FEWER YIDDISH THEATRES IN U. S. THIS SEASAN

The number of Yiddish theatres in the United States this season will be six less than the previous season, it was reported by Reuben Guskin, manager of the Yiddish Actors Union, at a meeting of the organization.

The club has a membership of 340 of whom about ninety are without engagements. During the previous season there were twenty-four theatres, while during the coming season only eighteen will be opened. The six Yiddish theatres which will not open this season are in New York. According son there were twenty-four theaters, in Chicago. Los Angeles. Baltimore, Cleveland and Boston, cities with large Jewish population were closed down.

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