The United Jewish Appeal today issued a call to American Jews “to temper the customary joyous celebration on Purim,” which is to be marked this Thursday, so that the raising of funds for the U.J.A. will not be stopped “evern for a single day.”
At the same time the National Campaign Cabinet of the U.J.A. voted to launch an emergency two-week drive for $5,000,000 in cash as the first of a series of special moves to effect the rescue of Jews from Iraq. More than 54,000 Jews must be transferred to Israel from Iraq before May 31, the deadline on emigration set by the Iraqi authorities.
The leaders of the U.J.A. emphasized in their call that Jewish communities throughout the country “must respond now if the U.J.A. is to forestall a major disaster in Iraq and in other Moslem countries. “The Purim festival commemorates the rescue from annihilation of the Jews of ancient Persia, which once included present-day Iraq.
David Horowitz, Director-General of Israel’s Ministry of Finance, who is now visiting the United States, conferred with leaders of the United Jewish Appeal to whom he reported that a panic-stricken mass-exodus to Israel of Jews from Iraq “has confronted the Jewish state with the most severs immigration crisis in its history.” He emphasized 70 days–before the May 31 deadline.
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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.
