Newspaper Page Text
1
Page Two
THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE
Friday, August 8,1947
FOREIGN NEWS LETTER
The Unhappy Jews in Arab Lands
By GEROLD FRANK
JERUSALEM.
When the United Nations Special Committee on Pales
tine begins its final deliberations this month, it may ponder
the true situation of Jews in Arab states—their treatment,
discrimination against them, the entire suffocating frame
work in which the average Jew finds himself. Arab spokes
men, seeking to prove the Idyllic
status of a Jewish minority in the
independent Arab Palestine they
demand, are always ready to point
out the general lack of anti-Jewlsh
laws on the books in the Arab
states range from generally unen
viable to intolerable; from Egypt
where the situation of Jews, many
of whom are wealthy, is compara-
Jvely the best, to Yemen, a back
ward country where the Jews are
the lowest of the low.
It must be remembered that re
ligion in the Middle East is a much
more devisive factor than in the
West. Religion Is the basis of so
cial mores; communities are re
ligious communities. Fear, sus
picion and hate have deep roots.
Add to tills the fact that Jews in
Arab lands are mainly in commer
cial pursuits, vulnerable economi
cally and subject to envy if suc
cessful; add also the nationalistic
propaganda and anti - Zionist
movements, and one better under
stand the Jewish plight.
Take the roll-call of countries:
First, Iraq. Here is the largest Jew
ish population of any Arab state —
130,000 Jews out of 4.000.000 in
habitants. Of the Jewish total,
100,000 live in Bagdad. There were
frightful progroms in Bagdad in
June. 1941. The temper of the
Iraqi was best expresed by Fadal
Jamili. Minister of Foreign Af
fairs, who declared, according to
the Iraqi Times of March 3, 1946,
"Hie problem of protecting the
Jews of Iraq whe ndisturbances
occur in Palestine often is a cause
PALESTINE TEACHERS EN ROUTE TO AID DP'S [
Reinstein Appointed
On Marshall's Staff
SAVANNAH — Jacques Joseph
Reinstein has bene named to Sec
retary of State George C. Mar
shall’s new policy planning staff
in Washington. Mr. Reinstein. 35,
will be the youngest man on the
board.
Mr. Reinstein has been with the
State Department for the past 11
years In the field of finance. He
will serve as economist on the
group of advisers. The group Is
charged with putting "continuity,
consistency and content In Ameri
can foreign policy.”
• • •
After a lapse of several years,
due to tire war, the annual jubilee
dance for the charity fund of the
Men and Women’s Club of the
Jewish Educational Alliance will
be held at the Tybrisa pavillion,
Savannah Beach, August 12.
-WANT AD-
RABBI AVAILABLE
Rabbi wants position with
Conservative or Reform Con
gregation. Experienced, Good
preacher, teacher and able to
chant services. Moderate sal
ary. Apply to Box 449, Care
Southern Israelite.
MOTORISTS
Rave your wheels properly
aligned and balanced.
AUTO ALIGNMENT CO.
312 Whitehall St JA. 3341
of anxiety and restlessness in Iraq.
No Iraq government can for loing
malng tain peace and quiet unless
justice is rendered the Arabs of j
Palestine. This last sentence may
not constitute official Incitement,
but it comes suspiciously close to
it.
Today Iraq Jews are unable to!
leave the country on the grounds
that they might go to Palestine.
When a Jew can leave—a medical;
student, for example, he must pay
2,000 dinars <8.0001 as warrant
for his return and his passport is
stamped “not valid for Palestine.”
In Iraq, anti-Jcwlsh laws are kept
off the records, but Iraq's raw ma
terials are not currently permitted;
to be exported to Palestine; the
government has begun a boycott
of the Haifa port by insisting that
exporters send their goods to
Europe throughout Beirut, In the I
Lebanon. There is a campaign ofl
vilification against Jewish mer
chants. charging they are trying
to break the boycott in league with
Jewish colleagues in Palestine.
In Iraq today there Is no Jew
ish magistrate, and no Jews of
any country, including the
United States, are granted trans
it visas.
Second. Syria. Here are 10,000
Jews—2,500 in Damascus. 7,500 In
Aleppo. The Damascus Jews are
in a sorry state. Half live on cahr-
tty funds contributed to Jewish so
cieties. Eighty pee cent of the
Jews are peddlers, 15 per cent are
in the middle class and five per
cent are wealthy. There are six
Jewish physicians, but no Jewish
Industrialists, lawyers, architects
or other professionals. Discrimi
nation is practice in many ways.
Thousands of Syrians flock to
Palestine In times of emergency,
but if one Jew Is caught on the
border, the entire press launches a
campaign.
Today Syria makes it virtually
impossible for Jews to go to
Palestine. There are almost no
Jewish officials in the Syrian
government. Jewish newspapers
are not permitted to enter Syria,
and when the Syrian press has
occasio nto speak of Jews it is
often derogatory. In June, 1946,
a regulation was adopted, read-
in: "Any person who Imports,
sells, buys or smuggles or tiies
to smuggle Zionist goods into
Syria Is liable to life imprison
ment or death.”
In recent elections based on the
new constitution. Jews were ac
corded one parliamentary seat out
of 137. At first they refused this,
not wishing to have the responsi
bility. They turned out to be pro
phetic, for when Jewish Deputy
Wahid Mizrachi was elected he
declared he would be faithful to
his people and his fatherland. The
newspaper Alif Ba of July 15, 1947.
demanded. “What people and what
fatherland?”
LEBANON
Third, the Lebanon. Jews from
Palestine are not freely allowed in
to the Lebanon. Even when the
Unite dNations committee went
there, it too kofficlal protests to
force the Lebanese government to
grant visas to a handful of Pal
estinian Hebrew journalists. The
Lebanon today has 6,000 Jews in
a population of more than 1.000,-
000, with the Jews mainly concen
trated in Beirut. There is out
wardly less discrimination than in
other Arab countries because of
various population groups such as
the Sunnites. Armenians and in
digenous Christians.
Hie Maronite Patriarch is a
friends of the Jew’s. Nevertheless,
when Jewish students from the
United States came to Palestine
last year, they were not permitted
to disembark at the port of Bierut
although other passengers were.
Today, large signs on the Pales-
tlne-Lebanese border warn against
bringing in "Zionist” goods, which
means any Jewish-made goods of
any kind.
EGYPT
Fourth, Egypt. There are 70.000
Jews in a population of 17,000,-
000. Their situation is economi
cally good, but their future is un
certain because of the “Egyptiza-
tion” of commerce and industry
and intensified xenophobia. All
accountings of companies, for ex
ample must be written in Arabic,
which means that many Jews are
replaced. Many Jewish companies
are compelled to take Egyptian
partners.
Many Jews do not have Egyp
tian nationality. Tills correspond
ent has seen one Jew proudly un
lock a safe and show a certificate
of his Egyptian nationality, saying.
"This is my most precious posses
sion, very hard to obtain, it is my
safeguard for the future.” With
out tills certificate, Jews have no
defense against the government.
There are currently intense na
tionalistic anti-Jewlsh campaigns.
Only three months ago the news
paper A1 Sawadi denounced Jews
lin terms reminiscent of GoebbeLs.
YEMEN
Fifth. Yemen. Here Is an in
credible situation for 45.000 Jews
In a population of 1,000,000.
The treatment of Jews is so bad
that even the Arabic paper Alif Ba
of Damascus attacked it, pointing
out ton January 2, 1945) that Jews
are not permitted to ride horses—
only donkeys; that If a Jew riding;
a donkey sees a Moslem ahead of
him. he must dismount 30 paces;
away, wait until the Moslem
passes, then mount the donkey-
agai nwhe nthe Moslem has gone
another 30 paces; that a Jew must
pass only to the right of a Moslem,
and If he does otherwise the Mos
lem Is entitled to force him to re
turn and pass correctly.
Saudi Arabia and Transjor
dan need no discussion because
they have no Jews and no Jews
are permitted.
The tilings cited here are ex
amples only, but where such things
are tolerated, where Jews are con
tinuously and relentlessly held up
to ridicule, denounced as danger
ous, called a menace to the com
munity and segregated by word,
deed and act—in such a frem-work
the life of tiie average Jew Is an
endless ordeal of accumulating
cruelty and helplessness.
Through a romhined operation of the Jewish Agency for Palestine and the
Joint Distribution Committee, which derive their funds from the 1170,000,000
United Jewish Appeal campaign, and the Central Committee of Liberated
Jews, 100 Jewish teachers from Palestine are now en route to Germany to pro
vide education for thousands of Jewish children in DP camps/Photos above
show members of the first group of 36 Palestine teachers leaving Marseille#
for Germany.
START NOW — SAVE WITH SAFETY
Regular Twice-a-Year Dividends
Each Account Insured Up to $5,000
ATLANTA FEDERAL
SAVINGS fr LOAN ASSOCIATION
22 Marietta St. Bldg., Main Fooc CY. 8422
U. S. Pharmacists Will Establish Laboratory
At Hebrew University Medical School
ROCHESTER, N. Y. (JTA)—The
establishment of a Pharmacology
Research Laboratory at the new
Hadassah - Hebrew University
Medical School on Mt. Scopus was
undertaken by Rho Pi Phi Pharma
ceutical Fraternity at its conven
tion held here.
After adopting a resolution
praising the $4,000,000 fund-rais-
New York Medical Schools Donate 60,000
Textbooks, Journals to European Doctors
lumbia University's College
NEW YORK. (JTA>—More than
60,000 medical textbooks.Journals,
charts and reports have been do
nated by New York medical schools,
libraries and individual doctors to
the Joint Distribution Committee’s
SOS Collection campaign, for the
use of doctors and students in
Europe, it was announced here.
Among the gifts was a donation
of 38.500 books and journals, from
the Library Division of the New
York Academy of Medicine. Co-
of
Physicians and Surgeons con
tributed a p a ro ximately 12,000
items of medical data; the Medi
cal College of Cornell University,
3,600; New York University’s Col
lege of Medicine. 1.000. The text
and journals, which are printed
in English. French, German. Rou
manian, Russian and Yiddish, are
being sorted and classified by the
JDC Medical Advisory Committee.
Holland Approves Plan
30,000 Can Settle in Surinam
NEW YORK (JTA)—Official
confirmation that the Parliament
of Surinam, in Dutch Guinea, and
the Netherlands Government have!
both approved the proposal of the!
Freeland League to settle 30,000
homeless European Jews in Suri
nam, was received by the League
last week, it was announced at a
press conference here.
Dr. I. N. Steinberg, secretary-
general of the League, said that
his organization will send a com
mission of experts to Surinam to!
select a suitable area for settle
ment and to draft detailed eco
nomic, technical and financial
plans. The project provides for
settling Jewish immigrants in an
undeveloped area of Surinam on
a community basis.
In announcing the acceptance
of the plan by the appropriate au
thorities, Dr. Steinberg said that
negotiations began in The Hague
in 1946 and were transferred to
Paramaribo, capital of Surinam.
A delegation of the Freeland
League visited Paramaribo in April
1947 and reached a preliminary
agreement with the Government
Advisory Commission of Surinam
on the main principles of the pro
posed colonization.
“This preliminary agreement, as
well as the figure of 30,000 immi
grants. were submitted to the Legi
slative Council of Surinam,” Dr.
Steinberg declared. "On June 27,
1947, they voted to accept the plan.
On July 3, 1947, Dr. J. A. Jonk-
man. Ministers for Overseas Terri
tories, announced in the Nether
lands Parliament in The Hague,
approval, of the project. On July
21, the Freeland League was offi
cially notified by Dr. J. C. Brons.
governor of Surinam, that the
and Netherlands g o v e r n m ent
agreed to the immigration of
30,000.”
ing effort of the new Palestine
Medical School now being conduct
ed in the United Staes by the
American Friends of the Hebrew
University and Hadassah, the 300
delegates'under the leadership of
Supreme Councillor Maurice Heb-
erman of Toronto, Canada, pledged
themselves to provide a fund for
a Pharmacology laboratory that
will bear the name of the oldest
and largest Jewish pharmacologi
cal fraternity in the United States.
The fraternity also adopted a
code of ethics for the pharmaceu
tical profession called “Then Com
mandments for My Profession,” in
troduced by Maurice Goldsmith of
Boston, former supreme councillor.
This code, prepared in cooperation
with the Anti-Defamation League
of B’nai B’rith, marks the first
time that a nation-wide profes
sional group has specifically stated
its social duties to the community.
CONTROi
fV.«* 10,4 *oach«‘
LgRlW#* H.1.
SWtOOtUKHO y
Ht ^ 1901
Since -
FOR BETTER SERVICE
List
The Property You Want to Sell
With
BERRY RITTENBAUM REALTY CORP.
WAlnut 1110