Authorities in Katanga, the secessionist Congolese province, have allocated reimbursement funds covering about half of the property of Jews plundered in the recent outbreaks against Europeans, Chief Rabbi Mose Levy of Elizabethville reported here today.
Rabbi Levy, who is visiting Brussels for a few days before returning to the Congo, said he had intervened with Premier Moishe Tchombe of Katanga to obtain indemnity for whites whose property had been looted. The reimbursements are intended to enable the Katangese Jews to resume their businesses.
The rabbi said that a number of Jews have returned to the Congo, leaving their families abroad temporarily, in the hope of saving their property and of reestablishing themselves. However, a number of Congolese Jews have decided to settle in Israel, including the entire Jewish community of Jabotville and its Rabbi, Moshe Piha. he said. There are now about 100 Jews in Belgium who have been repatriated from the Congo.
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