The official Israel radio, “Kol Israel,” beamed a special broadcast to the Iraqi Jews last night in which Sephardic Chief Rabbi Ben Zion Uziel sought to extend encouragement to the Jewish community in Iraq. He read the Hebrew and Arabic texts of the statement on the situation of the Iraqi Jews issued by the Israel Government and outlined the steps being taken to assure their safety.
Joseph Schlossberg, chairman of the National Committee for Labor Israel who is now in Israel, declared on a Kol Israel broadcast today that he was confident President Truman would convey “in his most vigorous manner” to the Bagdad authorities “America’s indignation at the maltreatment of Iraqi Jews.” He added: ” I have appealed to C.I.O. president Philip Murray and A.F.L. president William Green to present the case of the martyred Jews in Iraq to the President and to urge him to put an end to the anti-Jewish cruelties in that country.”
A35-year-old Jewish merchant who fled from Bagdad 11 days ago told a government-arranged press conference last night that the Iraqi secret police in recent weeks have adopted a procedure for terrifying the Jewish community in Iraq by carrying out unannounced night searches of Jewish homes.
“Terrified cries are heard from helpless neighbors,” he said. “Terrified women and children run wildly through the police-cordoned street, and no one dares to approach them for an explanation, fearing similar treatment.” The Iraqi police, he declared, seize on any excuse to arrest Jews, including possession of a Bible or a prayer shawl.
Describing his own internment, the Iraqi Jew said he saw scores of Jews beaten and tortured. They were later transferred to trucks and carried through the streets shouting at the populace, “rescue us, we do not know where they are taking us.” The fugitive urged swift intervention to rescue the Iraqi Jews, warning that the Jewish community was doomed unless efforts were not immediately exerted in their behalf.
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.
