The first World Assembly of Moroccan Jewry opened here today with a warm welcome from Morocco’s Ambassador to Canada and a plea by the president of Quebec’s Sephardic community “to strengthen our attachment to Morocco” and “to preserve our 2,000-year history, culture and religion.”
Some 150 delegates from Israel, the U.S., France, Spain, Venezuela, Great Britain and Canada — along with a large delegation from Morocco itself — are meeting here to establish an international organization of Moroccan Jewish groups. The leading figure at the conference is David Amar of Casablanca, president of the Moroccan Jewish community and leader of the Moroccan delegation.
Amar, in opening the assembly, pointed out that both the Israeli and Moroccan governments had endorsed the conference, a precedent which he said underscored the position of Jews in Morocco as the only Arab country where they enjoy equal rights and privileges.
In a letter to the assembly distributed in the delegates’ kits, Moroccan Ambassador to Canada Ahmed Hamlud praised the organizers of the meeting and called it an “immensely promising” event which “will strengthen the ties between us, preserve the identity of your community and guarantee the values created over the course of centuries in perfect harmony with the Moslem community, contributing richly to our common national heritage.”
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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.
