Jews of high standing in Italy, and there are many, were given sudden hope last week by an unexpected passage in Il Duce's speech at Trieste, most of which was devoted to possibilities of war (see p. 15). Although declaring that "World Jewry, during sixteen years, has been an irreconcilable enemy of Fascism," Premier Mussolini added, "Jews of Italian citizenship, however, possessing indisputable military and civic merits toward Italy and the Regime, will find understanding and justice! As for the other Jews, a policy of separation will be followed. In the end the world, perhaps, will be surprised more at our generosity than at our severity!"
This confirmed the impression produced by Italy's first anti-Semitic decree, which was limited to excluding the 20,000 Jews who have entered Italy since the War. Eager to please the Dictator, many Italian employers have been firing Jews, many Jews have fearfully resigned important posts. Last week it was learned that the brilliant Jewish correspondent, Alberto Moravia, after being fired by the People's Gazette of Turin, wrote directly to Premier Mussolini, asking if the Dictator had ever issued orders for Jewish journalists to be booted from their jobs. Promptly the Premier gave the Turin Gazette's editor a wigging, and rehired was Meritorious Jew Moravia.
Before the Dictator somewhat clarified his attitude at Trieste last week, Jewish President Arnaldo Frigessi Di Ratalma "voluntarily resigned" as head of this great port's biggest insurance firm Riunione Adriatica, which elected as his successor non-Jewish Fulvio Suvich, Italian Ambassador to the U. S. who is now in Italy. Jewish President Edgardo Morpurgo of Assicurazioni Generali, the great Venetian insurance firm, likewise resigned last week and was replaced by famed Count Volpi, who in 1925 as Finance Minister negotiated the Italo-U. S. debt accord. Swank Countess Volpi is a Jewess and so is the old mother of Fascist Minister of Education Giuseppe Bottai. Indeed, so many Jews of long standing in Italy hold places in or close to the Regime and seem to be such loyal Fascists, that intimates of Il Duce have figured from the first that his anti-Semitism was chiefly a bluffing gesture to impress the Führer and to curry a little favor from Islam to keep the British worried in Palestine.