The offices of the Joint Distribution Committee and HIAS in Rome closed down this afternoon after an emergency general strike was called by the trade union movement to protest against the kidnapping of Aldo Moro, the leader of the Christian Democratic Party and former Prime Minister, by the left-wing terrorist Red Brigade and the killing of his five bodyguards in a bloody ambush in Rome. The report of the closing of the offices was made known here by Ralph I. Goldman, JDC executive vice-president.
Goldman reported that Eleanora Mayer, the JDC representative in Rome, advised all the clients, mainly Soviet Jewish transmigrants waiting for visas to complete their journey to the United States and other Western countries, to get home quickly before transportation facilities were suspended and to stay home. Fear was expressed that the high tension caused by the kidnapping and murders could spill over into demonstrations and violence.
Goldman said the Rome office hopefully will open tomorrow depending on whether the strike continues. Some 3500 Soviet Jews are being cared for by the JDC in Rome and Ostia, a nearby community, while HIAS processes migration papers for them.
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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.
