The 17 remaining Jewish families living in Afghanistan made use of matzoh shipped to them by air by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) for Passover. According to the JDC, the shipment was picked up in time for seders in the cities of Herat and Kabul which were attended by an estimated 66 individuals.
The shipment of matzoh to Afghanistan was a small part of the total JDC Passover program which reached Jews in 30 nations around the world, benefiting an estimated 500,000 persons. Shipments of matzoh, matzoh meal, wine, cooking oil, macaroons, and other Passover foods totalled 208 tons in the 1982 program.
Jews receiving the shipments resided in Greece, Czechoslovakia, Rumania, Poland, Yugoslavia, Hungary, Melilla and Ceuta in Spanish Morocco, Spain, Portugal, Italy for Soviet emigrants, and the small community of Jews in Egypt in addition to Afghanistan.
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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.