Plans for the rehabilitation and resettlement of some 700 to 800 surviving Jews of Agadir, Morocco–all who are left of the community’s 2,300 Jews–are now being made by the Joint Distribution Committee, together with local Jewish organizations, it was announced here today by Edward M. M. Warburg, JDC chairman.
Mr. Warburg reported that some 500 of the Agadir Jews had been brought to Casablanca, where they are being cared for by the JDC, which is also providing food, clothing and medical care. After the immediate emergency has been met, Mr. Warburg reported, JDC must be prepared to undertake to provide housing, Jobs, schooling for the children and other necessities for the refugees. If Agadir is rebuilt, it will take many years, and it is difficult to predict how many of the city’s Jewish population will return, he said.
The JDC representative who is now in Morocco directing relief activities for the Jewish survivors reported that of the 2, 300 Jews in Agadir, the large majority perished in the earthquake; the same is true for the village of Inezgane, about eight to ten kilometers from Agadir, which had a Jewish population of about 250. Jewish institutions in Agadir were either completely destroyed or so badly damaged that they will have to be torn down. These include the Lubavitcher Yeshiva, and the Alliance Israelite Universelle School and kindergarten. Many of the community leaders and professional staff, including two rabbis, were killed in the disaster, the JDC report stated.
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