The Greek Jewish Community has urged the Greek Foreign Ministry to do everything possible to find out the whereabouts of a Greek Jewish seaman who disappeared while his vessel was in Iraq.
According to reports from Athens, the seaman, Chaim Cohen, wireless operator on the merchant ship Kirin, was seized by the Iraqi passport control officer when the ship docked in Basra on July 29. Cohen had not returned to the ship by the time it left Aug. 8.
The ship’s captain reported the incident to Greek authorities saying he believed that the disappearance was due to Cohen being Jewish, Officials have notified the seaman’s father, Baruch Cohen, a disabled Greek war veteran living on the island of Rhodes.
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