The “anti-Semitic attitude of immigration authorities” in Brazil and Uruguay was scored here at a press conference by three Jewish leaders concerned with immigration. They were: Mark Turcov, of the Latin American office of HIAS; Jacobo Feuerman, president of the Society for the Protection of Jewish Immigrants, a local group which cooperates with HIAS; and Adolfo Minyersky, secretary of the pro-Peronist Organizacion Israelita Argentina.
The three leaders related the argosy of some 67 Jewish refugees who arrived at Uruguay from Europe recently with tourist visas obtained for them from Uruguayan consulates in France by HIAS and the Joint Distribution Committee. The Uruguayan authorities refused to permit the Jews to land, asserting that the visas were invalid.
The vessel continued to Argentina where seven of the immigrants were permitted to Land and the remainder were told that they would be admitted from Europe or other countries when they obtained valid Argentinian visas through the O.I.A. While the vessel was en route from Argentina to Brazil the Buenos Aires Government instructed the Argentinian consulate at Rio de Janiero to issue ten visas to the Jews when their vessel arrived in a Brazilian port.
This the Argentinian consul did, but the Brazilian authorities refused to allow the Jews to land because they would have to wait 24 hours in Brazil for another ship back to Buenos Aires and for this they needed a Brazilian transit visa which they did not possess. The ten were forced to go on to Europe with the remainder of the refugees.
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.
