Jewish Businesses Wrecked in Rioting in Bogota, American Jewish Committee Reports

Virtually all Jewish business establishments were wrecked during the recent rioting in Bogota, and the Jewish community of that city is utterly devastated, according to a report received bytthe American Jewish committee here today. This information was contained in a communication to Dr. John ?lawson, executive vice-president of the Committee, from Maximo Yagupsky, head of the U.J.C. office in Buenos Aires, who is in Bogota attending the Inter-American conference.

“Jewish business has teen completely destroyed,” Yagupsky said. “Everything was burned and ransacked. It seems as though the Jews have been ruined.” A survey of the destruction has been undertaken under the auspices of Yagupsky, who asserted that aid is urgently needed from other Jewish communities to help reestablish Jewish economic life in the city.

The A.J.C. representative is in Bogota to present the Committee’s recommendations on the human rights declaration scheduled to be drafted by the Inter-American Conference. Among the basic recommendations urged by the Committee for the proposed Declaration of the International Bights and Duties of Man are the right of freedom of movement from one country to another, the right of freedom of speech and expression in any language, safeguards against restrictions of religious worship and measures to eliminate discrimination in the granting of nationality.