The activities in the United States of the World Organization of Jews From Arab Countries (WOJAC) are expanding, according to Leatrice David, executive officer of WOJAC in New York. Two new affiliates are in formation in Texas, a chapter on the north shore of Long Island, N.Y. has just begun to function and active chapters are functioning in Ann Arbor and Detroit, Michigan.
Miles Zitmore, assistant director of the American Jewish Committee’s Dallas office, is coordinating the activities of the Dallas-Fort Worth WOJAC organization. Debbie Dubin, a member of the WOJAC-American Section national executive, is coordinating the work in Houston.
According to David, more than 800,000 Jews were forced to flee the Arab countries and many others were killed in anti-Semitic riots, tortured and imprisoned. The local branches are being formed to alert the public to the rights of Jews who left or were forced to flee. A major purpose of the branches is to locate those refugees who settled in this country and to help determine their needs. These local chapters, David added, are the first steps in setting up a national membership organization. “We anticipate that groups in other cities will be joining us soon,” she said.
WOJAC was formed to give Jews a unified voice with which to protest illegal seizure of their properties by Arab governments and to focus attention on the fact that there are Jewish refugees from Arab countries. For too long, the only refugee problem in the Middle East which was given attention was that of the Palestinians, David said.
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