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U.J.A. Gets Urgent Plea from Israel for Aid to Speed Emigration of Jews from Iraq

February 2, 1951
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The aid of American Jews through the United Jewish Appeal is needed at once to mobilize a fleet of airplanes and other resources for a monthly movement out of Iraq of 13,000 Jews between now and the end of May, it was emphasized today in an appeal issued by Edward M.M. Warburg, general chairman of the U.J.A.

Mr. Warburg issued the appeal following receipt at the U.J.A. headquarters here of an urgent plea from the Jewish Agency office in Israel. The Agency leaders asked for additional large-scale financial help now to evacuate 54,000 Jews from Iraq before the and of May, at which time it is feared that the Iraq Government will terminate further Jewish emigration to Israel.

In announcing receipt of the Israel plea, Mr. Warburg said: “This confronts us with the most serious emergency since the end of World War II. It is evident that American Jews now hold in their hands the fate of tens of thousands of men, women and children who plead for escape from lands where they cannot live with any measure of freedom or dignity. Unless the American Jewish community is moved to act now and to give the United Jewish Appeal the funds that are so desperately needed, we will have to bear ultimate responsibility for the loss of many thousands of Jews not only for years to come but perhaps forever.”

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