White Carniolan Juro Adlešič and Slovenian emigration

Abstract

The paper describes the role of the White Carniolan Dr. Juro Adlešič in relation to Slovenian emigration. He drew public attention to the problem of Slovenian emigration to the United States through his journalistic writings and with a speech delivered at a Slovenian-Croatian Catholic convention held in 1913. On the one hand, Adlešič promulgated the position that discouraged emigration, while as a solicitor he endeavoured to improve the organisation of emigration, i.e. to heighten the concern for trans-Atlantic emigrants. He visited American Slovenes in 1938 as Mayor of Ljubljana. His destination was Cleveland, also referred to as American Ljubljana. Adlešič’s enchantment with the Slovenes living in the United States suggests a certain transition from the views he had held in the period of mass emigration before World War I. During and after the war, he himself became an »emigrant« by subjecting himself to Italian occupation as Ljubljana’s Mayor. He left for the United States, where he led a miserable existence until the 1960s, when he returned to his native country. He spent the rest of his days in the village of Adlešiči.