Dr. Bendrich Bass, president of the Federation of Jewish Communities in Bohemia and Moravia, brought greetings from the Czechoslovak Jewish community to the meeting here of the European branch of the World Jewish Congress. This was the first time in years that a Czech Jewish representative came to the West to attend such a gathering.
The leader of the remnant of the once-great Czech Jewish community, who attended the meeting here last week as an observer, said that the 7000 Jews currently residing in Czechoslovakia receive religious, cultural and welfare services from the Federation. He noted that four-fifths of the Czech Jewish community perished in the Holocaust, that most of the survivors had emigrated, that the middle-age generation was missing, and that the current Jewish population comprise mainly the needy aged and the very young.
Dr. Bass said that the Federation receives support from the Czech authorities who are urging the Federation to find a new rabbi. The community, he reported, has been without a spiritual leader since Rabbi Sicher died at the age of 95 more than five years ago. The Federation is also burdened with caring for 400 cemeteries, most of which are in a state of neglect, Dr. Bass said. They are situated in areas where Jews had long vanished.
SPAIN’S INTEGRATION INTO EUROPE SOUGHT
Samuel Toledano, vice-president of the Madrid Jewish community, who attended the WJC meeting as head of the Spanish delegation, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that Spanish Jews are deeply interested in having post-Franco Spain become properly integrated into Europe.
Toledano, a Morocco-born electronics businessman, said most Spanish Jews were relative newcomers, deriving from East Europe, North Africa and South America. A number of Jews came from Chile when the Allende regime took power, he reported. He said Spain’s 10,000 Jews enjoyed prosperity and equality in religious rights. They live in 11 communities, with Madrid the largest center with 3000 Jews.
The Spanish Jewish leader said they were profoundly interested in Spain’s full admission to the European Economic Community (EEC) and the Atlantic Alliance in order to ensure its proper integration in Europe. Otherwise, he feared, a right-wing backlash might set in.
JUAN CARLOS SYMPATHETIC TO JEWS
He reported that a Jewish delegation had received a warm welcome from Prince Juan Carlos when calling on him before he became king. They presented him with a set of Encyclopaedia Judaica. The future king expressed profound sympathy for the Jewish people, as well as his deep interest in Israel and also said he would like to visit the Jewish State, Toledano stated.
He also reported on previous visits to the palace when they were received by the late head of state, Generalissimo Francisco Franco, who had always been receptive to calls for humanitarian aid for Jews in distress, Toledano recalled Spanish intervention on behalf of Egyptian Jews in the past.
The European Branch of the WJC ended its meetings here with the adoption of a resolution denouncing the UN anti-Zionist resolution, and another expressing regret at the non-implementation of the Helsinki agreement in regard to Soviet Jewry. This concerned both the areas of freedom of movement, and of cultural and religious life WJC Secretary-General Gerhard M. Riegner reported on preparations for celebrating the WJC’s 40th anniversary next year.
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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.
