Jews Across Nation Will Demonstrate Against Executions, Hold Memorial Meetings

Jewish businessmen in Paterson, N. J. closed their stores today. They will be closed tomorrow and Saturday as if there were a death in the family. Their symbolic action will be duplicated in numerous cities across the nation as memorial demonstrations are slated in coming days to protest Iraq’s execution of nine Jews alleged to have spied for Israel and its current trial of 13 more charged with aiding the United States Central Intelligence Agency.

The National Community Relations Advisory Council (NCRAC) said today that Christian organizations and leaders were joining Jews to raise their voices against the revolutionary tribunal trials in Baghdad. Demonstrations are slated in Detroit, Cleveland, Boston, Washington, D. C., Los Angeles and Springfield, Mass. Other cities were expected to join.

Kaddish for the executed Jews will be recited and memorial candles will be lighted in synagogues from coast to coast. Next Monday congregations and community groups will also hold memorial meetings and protests, according to Rabbi Herschel Schacter, chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. Yehuda Hellman, Presidents Conference executive director, said that following a Conference-sponsored memorial service at Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun in New York, there will be a procession to the Iraq Mission to the United Nations and a silent vigil held there. Rabbi Schacter praised President Richard M. Nixon and UN Secretary-General U Thant for “expressions of concern” but warned that 65 others–many of them Jews–faced secret trial and public hanging in the “Iraq reign of terror.”

In Washington, Rep. William Fitts Ryan, New York Democrat, introduced a House bill that would authorize 3,000 emergency visas to facilitate entry of Jewish citizens of Iraq if they can escape.

The world’s anger and indignation over the trials and executions continued unabated today as officials, newspapers and organizations poured out their outrage in statements and editorials.

The New York Times devoted its second editorial in two days to the event. “Israel can see that the world does care,” it said. “This concern must now be manifested in appropriate international action to alleviate the plight of Jews in all Arab countries that deny them basic human rights.” The Christian Science Monitor, published in Boston, similarly carried an editorial for the second consecutive day, this time saying: “By limiting itself to verbal condemnation of the dead, Israel will have a better chance of rallying world pressure behind it …

Recalling that it recently criticized Pope Paul VI and other world leaders for having “applied a double standard” on recent violence and terrorism involving Israel and the Arabs, the Synagogue Council of America yesterday praised the Pontiff and Protestant and Catholic leaders for voicing outrage over the executions. The organization, representing Conservative, Reform and Orthodox rabbinic and congregational organizations in the United States, expressed hope that world political and religious leaders will continue and intensify their interventions to prevent “repetition of these monstrous barbarities.” Lawrence Cardinal Sheenan, Archbishop of Baltimore, termed the executions a “repugnant action” and declared “the preponderance of Jews gives the execution an aura of the vendetta.”

Jacques Torczyner, president of the Zionist Organization of America, which claims over 100,000 members, today urged the U.S. Government to insist in the UN and on its own right that Jewish “captives” in Arab lands be permitted to emigrate to Israel. He said that Iraq’s 2,500 Jews as well as those in Egypt, Syria and Lebanon were “hostages in deadly peril.”

In a telegram to President Richard M. Nixon, Charles Feureisen, national commander of the Jewish War Veterans of the U.S.A., urged “full American protests and diplomatic pressures against the barbaric executions of Iraqi Jews.” Earl Morse, chairman of the board of trustees of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations (Reform) also sought aid for Iraq Jews in messages to Mr. Nixon and Mr. Thant. B’nai B’rith addressed a similar appeal to Mr. Thant.

In London, more than 50 Members of Parliament signed a motion in the House of Commons deploring the executions. Iraqi Ambassador, Khadim Khalaf filed protests with the Foreign Office, objecting to the Government’s expression of regret over the hangings and to demonstrations outside his Embassy. Vigils were held in public squares in Manchester, in the heart of the industrial midlands and in Glasgow, Scotland.

In Johannesburg, Maurice Porter, chairman of the Board of Jewish Deputies of South Africa, said the world “was horrified”. The Board of Deputies and South African Zionist Federation called for a mass protest meeting Sunday.

In Santiego, Chile today, the newspaper, El Mercurio, described the hangings as “an offense against human rights” that “sent a shudder throughout the world.” Brazilian Foreign Minister Magalhaes Pinto instructed the UN Mission to transmit to the Iraqi delegation its concern over the fate of the Iraqi Jews.