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Jews in Iran Becoming Increasingly Concerned About Their Future

January 18, 1979
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An Israeli who just returned from Iran claimed that Jewish mothers there pleaded with him to “take our children to Israel” because they expect “terrible things” to happen after the Shah left. According to Itzhak Meir, director of the Yemin Orde Youth School, some 300 Jewish children have already been brought 16 Israel from Iran, leaving their parents behind, and several hundred other Iranian Jews are waiting to be transferred to Israel.

Meir said he was sent to Iran by the Jewish Agency on a mission to rescue Jewish children. He reported that Jews there are becoming increasingly alarmed about their future. He said that by chance he was at Teheran airport yesterday when the plane carrying the Shah into exile took off without any ceremony. He said a jubilant Iranian soldier fired his rifle into the air, narrowly missing a Jewish Agency worker from Israel.

Meanwhile, E1 A1 announced it will continue its service to Teheran as long as the new regime headed by Prime Minister Shahpur Bakhtiar permits it. But the Bakhtiar government is expected to deny landing rights soon to Israeli aircraft as a prelude to revering all relations with Israel. Two E1 A1 flights to the Iranian capital were cancelled today because of bad weather in Teheran.

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