The United States Post Office Department has promised to review all International mail rates and zones and will seriously consider the possibility of putting all Middle East countries in one airmail postage zone. This promise was contained in an answer sent by Postmaster General Lawrence F. O’Brien to thousands of queries that have been directed to him in petitions circulated by the Far Rockaway Jewish Community Council seeking to correct an inequity between air rates to Israel and to its neighbor, Egypt.
Rubin R. Dobin, chairman of the Far Rockaway Council, explained that a half-ounce airmail letter to Egypt costs 15 cents, while the same letter to Israel requires postage of 25 cents. Mr. Dobin pointed out that Israel was placed in the higher airmail rate zone by the arbitrary drawing of a line on a map which separated it from the other countries in the cheaper rate zone. The Council launched a nationwide campaign to secure 100,000 signatures to a petition asking that Israel be placed in the 15 cent airmail rate zone.
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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.
