Four thousand Bulgarian Jewish immigrants arrived at Haifa this week-end and were welcomed by Minister of Immigration Moshe Shapira. The arrivals sang Hatikvah as their vessel approached the shores of Israel. A huge picture of Premier David Ben Gurion aboard the ship was visible from the shore.
Meanwhile, 100 displaced Jews arrived at Haifa by air from Munich. The first plane load of 36 Jewish refugees from Austria arrived this week-end at the Lydda airport.
The Arab countries are holding their Jewish citizens “hostage” as a weapon in their war against Israel, Jacob Zerubavel, head of the Jewish Agency department for Jews living in Moslem countries, declared here today at a press conference in connection with a parley discussing measures to aid the Jews residing among the Arabs. The “rescue of 1,000,000 Jews in Arab countries must Israel’s and Jewry’s first and foremost task,” Zerubavel added.
Zerubavel will leave for abroad within a short time to meet with representatives of the World Jewish Congress and other groups to organize rescue work, he told newsmen. At the same conference, a Jewish leader who recently visited North Africa reported that 500,000 Jews living in that area desire to migrate to Israel.
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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.