A May 31 deadline by which time Jewish emigration from Iraq to Israel was to have ended under a decree of the Iraq Government has been extended until June 30, thereby providing a last minute opportunity for the rescue of additional tens of thousands of Jews remaining in that country, Edward M.M. Warburg, general chairman of the United Jewish Appeal, disclosed today.
Mr. Warburg announced that the United Jewish Appeal had been advised by immigration authorities in Israel that negotiations to extend the May 31 deadline had been successfully completed, and that the United Jewish Appeal must make available at once Large cash funds to continue the air evacuation of Jews from Baghdad to Israel at the present rate of nearly 1,000 a day. Mr. Warburg pointed out that since May 1950, when the Iraqi Government imposed a one-year limitation on Jewish emigration, 90,000 Jews had been flown to Israel from that country.
In addition to the Jews to be moved out of Iraq this month, the United Jewish Appeal must provide also for the transfer to Israel in June of approximately 8,000 or more Jews from Roumania and from other Eastern European and Moslem countries, Mr. Warburg said. He stressed that “the month of June might well see the establishment of a new emigration record,” provided Jewish communities throughout the United States responded in time to the U.J.A.’s urgent need for cash.
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