The last elections to the Jewish Cultural Council, the organ of Jewish cultural autonomy in Esthonia, resulted in the Zionists obtaining 13 out of the total 20 seats. When the new Council met, it reelected M. Eisenstadt and M. Klammfuss, both Zionists, to their previous offices of President and Secretary respectively, and appointed an Executive exclusively Zionist. The Socialists and Yiddishists demanded that they should also be represented in the Executive, and when this was refused, they walked out of the meeting.
The Opposition announces that it will carry on a determined campaign against the Council, which it is feared, may lead to the abolition of Jewish cultural autonomy in Esthonia.
The principal question of difference is that of the language of instruction in Jewish schools.
The Zionists and Yiddishists have told the J.T.A. representative in Reval that they are agreeable to having Hebrew and Yiddish parallel classes in the schools. The Yiddishists complain that the Hebraists have not adhered in the past to this arrangement, and have given more time to Hebrew instruction than to Yiddish. The Socialists insist that Yiddish must be made the sole language of instruction in the Jewish Schools, and they demand further that the schools must be conducted in the Socialist spirit.
The only Jewish periodical appearing in Esthonia, the monthly, “Unser Wort,” protests against the one-sided composition of the Executive, and calls upon the Zionists not to endanger Jewish autonomy in the country by refusing to allow the other parties to take part in its work.
The President of the Jewish Cultural Council, M. Eisenstadt, points out in an interview with the J.T.A. representative, that altogether there are only a few hundred more than 3,000 names registered in the list of the Jewish nationality in Esthonia, asking for Jewish autonomy, and under the law it is necessary that the list should contain at least 3,000 names. If a few hundred Jews withdraw their names, he said, it will mean the end of Jewish autonomy.
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.
