A survey made of the some 3,000 applications for emigration, filed with the offices of United Hias Service in Morocco and Tangiers, indicates that 84 percent of the heads of families seeking to immigrate to new lands are skilled craftsmen, artisans, or professional men, “who would be an asset to any country which will accept them,” Ben Touster, president of United Hias, disclosed today.
Mr. Touster said that the applicants for emigration, many of them seeking to be reunited with friends and kin in the Western Hemisphere, have received training in trade schools and have been “Europeanized” in various schools established in or near the “mellahs,” the Jewish quarters in the ancient native area; that their culture and habit conforms with occidental patterns, and that most of them speak three or more languages. He pointed out that the applications accepted by United Hias offices did not duplicate any filed for immigration to Israel with the Jewish Agency, which is handling that phase of the movement out of North Africa in accordance with a prior arrangement.
Mr. Touster also stated that the organization’s executive director, Arthur Greenleigh, recently visited North Africa where he arranged for dossiers to be compiled on each applicant so that the detailed description of families can be presented to governments in countries of immigration along with requests for visas. Mr. Greenleigh had learned that it was the unanimous opinion of members of his staff in North Africa, and Europe, that if governments were made to realize the type of immigrants they were being offered, the task of obtaining visas for them would be relatively easier.
Because many of the applicants speak Spanish and can easily be assimilated in South America, United Hias is presently making representations before governments of that continent. Some French-speaking Jews of North Africa have indicated their desire to go to Canada, and still others hope for immigration to the United States, Australia, and other countries. Mr. Greenleigh reported that among the registrants with United Hias offices in North Africa are some former victims of Nazism who found refuge in Tangiers or Morocco, and others who came from Eastern European countries to which they cannot return.
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.
