600 Heads of Jewish Families in Egypt Imprisoned; Jews Killed in Morocco

Almost all of the 600 male heads of Jewish families in Egypt were reported here yesterday to be under arrest as a result of the Arab-Israel war. Other reports said that Jews are being hunted in the streets in Libya by Arab mobs and that two Jews were killed by mobs in Morocco.

Zacharias Schuster, the European director of the American Jewish Committee, reported on the mass arrests of Egyptian Jewish males. He came to Geneva from Paris to discuss with international organizations here the plight of Jews in Arab countries of North Africa. He said that Grand Rabbi Jacques Nefoussi of Cairo was in a jail and that Grand Rabbi Chaim Douek of Alexandria was under house arrest. He reported also that most of the imprisoned Jews, though born in Egypt, were stateless and that therefore no government could intervene on their behalf.

About 300 Jewish men are being held in Barrag, a prison near Alexandria and 300 others in a prison near Cairo, Mr. Schuster reported. The AJC official also reported that two Jews were killed in Meknes, Morocco, last week and one was wounded yesterday by Arab mobs in Rabat. Almost all Jewish shops in Libya were put to the torch last week and several Jews killed by mobs, he said. The Libyan police and fire departments took no action, he added.

Another report received here from Alexandria indicated that the male Jews in Egypt were divided into those who were foreigners and those who were Egyptians. The foreign Jews were cleared for expulsion and the word “mobayid,” meaning expelled, was stamped on their passports. They were put in police cars and open trucks and driven to Alexandria. En route, they suffered beatings either from soldiers or from the populace. They were placed aboard a German freighter bound for Crete.

(In London, the World Jewish Congress today appealed to the Red Cross in Geneva to act to protect Jews in Arab countries who are now exposed to “mob violence and inhuman treatment.”)