British Jews Appeal to Nehru to Intervene with Egyptian Government

The Board of Deputies of British Jews, speaking in the name of the Anglo-Jewish community, protested today the Egyptian Government’s denial of elementary rights and freedoms of Egyptian Jews. It appealed to the United Nations and all nations which respect civilized standards of conduct to intervene to secure restoration of these essential rights and freedoms to the Jews of Egypt. In a special plea, the Board asked Pandi, Nehru of India to use his good offices to obtain a change in the attitude of the Egyptian Government.

The Board of Deputies protest expressed shock at the “oppressive measures” taken by Egypt against the Jews. It noted that these measures included: large-scale arbitrary arrests, imprisonment under cruel conditions, seizure of Jewish enterprises and institutions and individual Jewish property, the taking of hostages, decrees authorizing the denaturalization of Egyptian Jews and action to expel the majority of the Jewish population.

The Board further charged that Egyptian Jews who had wished to leave Egypt during the last five years were restrained. It charged that the detention of Jews for years and their impoverization prior to expulsion was modelled on the Nazi pattern.

British Chief Rabbi Israel Brodie today asked spiritual leaders in all Jewish congregations from Britain to recite Psalms 130 and 121 this coming Sabbath “in view of the cruel measures of persecution to which the Jews of Egypt are now being subjected.” The ministers were asked to refer, in their sermons, to the “tragic plight of our fellow Jews in Egypt and to express the hope that the conscience of the world will be aroused to take effective measures to halt the inhumanity being shown against these helpless people.”