The situation of the Jews in liberated Benghazi is described in a report received today by the World Jewish Congress from the president of the Cyrenaica Jewish Communities.
The members of the Benghazi community who had been in internment camps in Tripolitania have returned to their places of residence, the report says. They now number only 2,000, since almost 500 perished through torture, illness and dire need. The rest the Jewish residents of Cyrenaica are still dispersed. Those who are French subjects are in Tunisia and Algeria, while the British subjects are interned in Italy, having been deported there before the Italian retreat. Among those who returned to Benghazi, many are out of work, others are unable to earn a living wage.
A difficult problem that the community faces is that of education. Since the war, the children have remained without schooling. Amidst the conditions of we the conquest, and retreats, the disorders and the destruction resulting from serial bombings, and the life in places of asylum and internment camps, education has been a difficult problem. Although the theater of war has shifted the schools have not as yet reopened. The British authorities are concerned with the organization of the schools. However, since this locality is Arabian, they want to have Arabia used in for the schools, while the Jewish community demands that Hebrew schools be established for the Jews using the Hebrew language for all subjects and that Arabic and English should also be taught.
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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.
