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Egyptian Jews in U.S. Ask State Dept. to Admit Jews Leaving Egypt

March 14, 1957
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Leaders of the American Association of Jews from Egypt today appealed to officials of the State and Justice Departments to offer haven to Jewish refugees from the Nasser persecution.

Stressing that nearly 14,000 Jews have already been stripped of their possessions and expelled from Egypt and that the fate of another 40,000 still in Egypt lies between exile or imprisonment, the leaders called upon the U.S. Attorney General to use his existing powers to admit as parolees a “fair share” of the victims

The group which today called upon Donald C, Bergus of the State Department’s Office of Near Eastern Affairs and Edward Rudnick, Assistant Commissioner of Immigration of the Justice Department, was made up of the president of the Association. I. Edward Haffkine of New York, and the vice-president and secretary, both of whom withheld their names for fear of reprisals against relatives who are still in Egypt. All three are now American citizens.

In presenting their appeal to the government officials, the three submitted a documented survey of conditions in Egypt, entitled “The Black Record: Nasser’s Persecution of Egyptian Jewry,” which was recently published by the American Jewish Congress. The 48-page study is a detailed account of Nasser’s policy of spoliation, imprisonment and expulsion which is aimed at destroying that country’s ancient Jewish community.

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