SHOFAR ALEPH ZADIK ALEPH (AZA) B'NAI B'RITH GIRLS (BBG) MARCH, 1972 B'nai B'rith Youth Organization 0190 JEWS 18017COOBIEJ JEFFREY COOK BIERYS BRIDGE RD BETHLEHEM PA 18017 IN CRISIS Jews In Arab Lands This article is reprinted from the January, 1972 issue of the some Arab leaders with the Nazis inspired inten- How secure are the Jews still living in Arab ADL BULLETIN, national publication of the Anti-Defama- sive anti-Jewish attitudes in the Arab world. tion League of B'nai B'rith. lands? For the 40,000 in Morocco, the 9,000 in There were three waves of Jewish emigration Tunisia, and the 4,000 in Lebanon, there is no from Arab countries. The main exodus came immediate danger, no organized persecution by by Abraham H. Foxman before and immediately after the establishment the authorities. But while official treatment is of the State of Israel. The second wave came after seemingly fair, these Jewish communities face Abraham H. Foxman is director of the Anti-Defamation League's Mideast affairs department. the Sinai campaign in 1956; the third after the hostile attitudes and actions from some of the 1967 war. The refugees succeeded in getting out population. In the event of internal political In 1948 there were 850,000 Jews in Arab lands; after giving up citizenship and all claims to their strife, they may face dangers. today there are some 60,000, facing varying properties. Of those who left, 550,000 went to degrees of danger. Israel. The greatest concern, however, is for those Jews have lived in Arab countries, both in the (In fact, the Middle East witnessed an exchange Jews trapped in Syria, Iraq and Egypt where they Middle East and North Africa, for two thousand of populations, with Jewish refugees from Arab are subject to persecution, humiliation, and years. In some they developed large and pros- lands equaling the number of Arab refugees who official discrimination, including arrest and perous communities which played an important interrogation. left Israel during the War of Liberation. The only role in the economic and cultural life of Arab difference was in the treatment of the two pop- In these countries, most Jews live in poverty. society. But while there were periods during ulations upon their arrival: the Jews were wel- Their property has been confiscated; there are which Jews were accepted, more often they were comed by Israel and integrated into the society; bans on employing Jews or doing business with treated as second-class citizens, subject to dis- the Arabs were kept in special camps in Arab them. Religious and educational activities are crimination, humiliation and outbreaks of open countries and used as political pawns by their greatly restricted. Their right of emigration is hatred. The rise of Hitler and the cooperation of brothers.) (continued on page 2) And In The Soviet Union by Harris O. Schoenberg the basic human rights guaranteed by the Uni- government to grant pardons and release these versal Declaration of Human Rights. prisoners. Harris O. Schoenberg serves as Secretary of We question the Soviet practice of harassing At the heart of the problem is the basic natural the Academic Committee on Soviet Jewry. and intimidating those desiring to rejoin their right of individuals to find self-fulfillment in loved ones in Israel and other lands. It is in- meaningful relationships with their people, and humane for Jews who have asked to live in the the right of a people to live and develop its own As President Nixon prepares to depart for his land of their choice to suddenly lose their culture. In continued violation of Soviet law and summit meeting in Moscow, American Jews and jobs, to be searched periodically, and to suffer Communist ideological pronouncements, be- other concerned citizens are urging him to speak beatings. tween two and three million Jews in the Soviet out on behalf of the Jews of Russia- to urge the We are also concerned about the reported re- Union are deprived of their cultural and religious Russian government to restore the Jews' collective fusal of treatment to suffering Jewish prisoners rights. Jews are discriminated against in educa- and individual human rights. of conscience. It is a tragic irony that at the mo- tion and employment, and a mass media anti- Some would ask why we should continue to ment when Jews are achieving the realization of Jewish campaign-lightly disguised as anti-Zion- raise our voices in support of the Soviet Jews at their dreams of reunion, there languish in prison continues, using Nazi stereotypes. a time when thousands are being allowed to and work camps some 40 Jewish prisoners of Any relationship of mutual understanding be- leave. Certainly, we are happy that so many conscience whose only crime was to aspire to tween the United States and Russia must be Soviet Jews have been reunited with their fam- this dream. We find it difficult to understand how based upon the observance of fundamental hu- ies in Israel. But, at the same time, tens of thou- the Soviet Union fails to pay attention to the man rights and freedoms. So long as the Russian sands of Soviet Jews have applied to leave Russia voices of such leading Soviet citizens as nuclear government persists in ignoring these basic but have not yet received exit visas. We should physicists Valery Chalidze and Andrei Sakharov rights, it is difficult to understand how the United realize that the Russians are not doing the Jews of the Soviet Committee on Human Rights. These States and the Soviet Union can ever develop a "a favor." All we ask is that the Jews be granted eminent scientists have called upon the Soviet (continued on page 2)