Posters in Jerusalem Warn on Rift Between European and Sephardi Jews

The Jerusalem Sephardi Committee today posted placards throughout the city warning against a widening rift between the European and non-European communities. The move followed the series of riots during the past two weeks in Haifa, Migdal Haemek and Beersheba.

Giant posters recapitulated long-standing claims of discrimination against non-European Jews and pointed to the lack of representation of the Sephardic community in Israel’s Parliament and the Jewish Agency. The posters attacked the World Jewish Congress conference convening in Stockholm next month. The Sephardi committee charged that none of Israel’s 25-man delegation to the conference were non-European Jews, although the parley is to discuss communal integration in Israel.

The Federation of the Sephardis today sent a cable to Dr. Nahum Goldmann, president of the World Jewish Congress, pointing out that the Sephardi community consists of nearly a half of the entire Jewish population in Israel. The Federation protested the non-inclusion of Sephardi representatives in the delegation. As a result, Dr. Leon Bernstein, leader of the Israeli executive of the WJC, said this afternoon that Sephardi representatives would be included in the delegation to the Stockholm parley as observers and consultants to the Israeli executive.

The Sephardi posters also criticized the composition of the Government commission named to inquire into the Haifa disturbances, pointing out that only two members of the commission were non-Europeans. The Committee urged the expansion of the panel and broadening the commission’s scope to include social and economic aspects of the riots. The Committee placed the responsibility for the disturbances on all political parties and claimed that they all practiced discrimination and were indifferent to the plight of non-Europeans.