Jews in Morocco Consider Protest of Their Leaders Lacking Firmness

The communique issued Tuesday the Council of Moroccan Jewish Communities, protesting treatment of Moroccan Jews in recent weeks, evoked a cool reception from Moroccan Jews who noted that the communique made no reference to arrests and tortures suffered by Jews in recent weeks.

The Council is appointed by Moroccan authorities and not elected. The communique was regarded as fresh proof of the Council’s in ability, because of fear, to speak up for the Moroccan Jewish community. Moroccan Jews had been expecting a statement denouncing the Nazi-like tortures suffered by some Jews in Moroccan police stations. There was a widespread feeling that the communique was lacking completely in force or firmness.

The International League Against Racialism and Anti-Semitism issued a communique here today expressing grief over the renewed arrests of Moroccan Jews and stating it would again contact Moroccan authorities at Rabat to make its views known.

The organization denounced “the criminal agents provocateurs who try, by circulating incendiary tracts, to incite the Moslem population against their Jewish countrymen.” The organization asked an investigation to find and punish those who circulated the pamphlet to Moroccan Jews, urging them to leave the country. The renewed arrests, largely in towns in southern Morocco, followed the distribution.

The European director of the American Jewish Committee, Zachariah Shuster, was in Morocco today to observe the Jewish situation in the country. He hoped to be received by the Minister of the Interior, Mr. Bekkai. Meanwhile, he met with several leaders of the Moroccan Jewish community, including David Amar, secretary-general of the Council of Moroccan Jewish communities.