Dr. William A. Wexler, president of B’nai B’rith, charged here last night that Egypt had refused to allow the International Red Cross to investigate the situation of Egyptian Jews of whom an estimated 350 to 400 male adults were jailed in Cairo and Alexandria when fighting broke out on June 5.
Speaking at the annual convention of B’nai B’rith District 7, Dr. Wexler also charged that more than 50 Syrian Jews were slain in mob riots following the start of the June war. He said that Syria’s 4,000 Jews had been subjected over the past four years to night arrests and other harassments and that their freedom to travel to earn a living had been severely restricted. He charged that similar restrictions had been imposed on the 2,000 Jews still living in Iraq.
He told the delegates that B’nai B’rith had appealed to the State Department to investigate and to “do whatever is possible” to ameliorate the situation of Jews in Arab countries who have suffered widespread injuries and death and destruction of property in connection with the war.
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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.