Eight hundred and fifty-one refugee children accompanied by 369 adults were starting a new life today in Palestine after a six-week detour by sea to get from Teheran to Jerusalem, a land distance of about 900 miles.
Political conditions in the Middle East barred them from the overland route through Iraq, which would have made the last leg of their odyssey from Poland a matter of a few days, and sent them on a voyage that led through the Persian Gulf, the Arabian Sea, the Gulf of Aden, the Red Sea and the Suez Conal. They left the Persian capital early in January.
When the first ten train coaches arrived yesterday morning, Jewish school children turned out to greet them with songs and banners, and the refugee youngsters broke into choruses of Zionist hymns. Chief Rabbis Herzog and Uziel, Isaac Ben-Zvi, president of the Jewish National Council and representatives of the Jewish Agency were also at the station to greet the young immigrants. Later the children were distributed among eight temporary camps, where they will live until permanently settled in new homes. A very few of the children have parents in Palestine. The Palestine government cooperated with Jewish organizations in welcoming the children by entertaining them at a railway station breakfast. One of the new arrivals was a baby born en route, named “Aliyah.”
Most of the children, who had traveled from war-torn Poland to the Soviet Union and then to Persia, appeared to he in good health, although their clothes were worn. They were cheerful and made a lively scene thanking British authorities and police who escorted them from Egypt. While passing through Egypt the youngsters were presented with a gift of sweets by: Jewish units of the Royal Engineers stationed there.
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.
