Leaders Deny World Jewish Congress Session Was ‘inimical’ to Morocco

Two prominent Moroccan Jews called upon the Istiqlal Party newspaper, Al Alam, today to halt a campaign against the Moroccan Jewish community based on the participation by the two men in the recent conference of the World Jewish Congress, in Geneva.

The newspaper had described the Congress session as a Zionist meeting aimed to advance the cause of Israel and encourage Jewish emigration from North Africa to the Jewish State. It charged that, through the participation of their leaders in this meeting, the Moroccan Jewish community had been guilty of disloyalty to “national Moroccan policy.” The paper called for “merciless sanctions.”

The two leaders, Marc Sabbagh and David Azoulay, wrote to the paper that they had attended the executive meeting of the World Jewish Congress, but denied that there was anything in the meeting inimical to Morocco. Their joint letter concluded: “The Maghreb (the Arab nation) always understood that the Jewish religion was more than a mere cult, and demands contact among Jewish communities so long as this does not interfere with our duties as loyal Moroccan citizens.”