The 2,200 remaining Jews in the Congo are fearful of the future, and have grave doubts about the advisability of staying, the annual program review meeting of the United Hias Service here was told this weekend.
The report was presented by Morton Friedman, United Hias representative, who arrived here from Elizabethville, the center of the largest Jewish concentration in the strife-wracked country. He said more than 60 Jewish families quit the Congo permanently, as a result of the riots there. He reported that, in Elizabethville, 20 percent of the Jewish population had suffered directly as the result of attacks against the homes and businesses of European whites.
Mr. Friedman said that, while the situation was calmer at present and fears of further physical violence had abated, many Jews are considering leaving the Congo. Jews now constitute about 20 percent of the total white population in Elizabethville, he stated.
James P. Rice, Hias executive director, said the primary purpose of the conference was to examine current possibilities for Jewish emigration from Western and Eastern Europe, and changing conditions in the lands of migration, departure and reception. He said that, by the end of 1960, about 4,000 persons will have been resettled by United Hias this year, and 7,000 more Jews were given migration and related assistance of all kinds.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
