More than 100 French Jews arrived in Marseilles and Paris from Tunisia this weekend as part of a large-scale exodus of Frenchmen returning to Metropolitan France due to the tension between the two countries since the Bizerte affair last month. The returning Jews told community workers here that they decided to leave Tunisia as Frenchman, not as Jews.
The Fond Social Juif Unifie opened up temporary welfare offices in Marseilles where most of the repatriates arrived, but less than a score of families were in need of assistance. Most returning Jews have family ties in France and it is hoped they will easily be resettled in the French economy.
Although the emigration gate from Tunisia still stands wide open, few Tunisian Jews are known to have left the country. No anti-Jewish measures have been adopted by the Tunisian authorities and the country’s Jewish community was reported to be “as quiet as can be expected under the circumstances”.
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