The increasingly precarious position of the 40,000 so-called stateless Jews in Egypt, who are faced with ouster from their jobs and other forms of civil and economic discrimination, is causing great concern to leaders of the Jewish community here.
These Jews, all of whom are native-born, and, in most cases, whose fathers and grandfathers were born here, are classified as “stateless” under a peculiar legal ruling. Under a recently adopted law termed the “Bill on Companies” 90 percent of all employees of Egyptian firms must be Egyptian nationals. As a result, thousands of these stateless Jews will soon be dismissed. To the roster of the unemployed will be added hundreds of Jews being dismissed by Allied military installations, which are being closed down.
The local Jewish weekly, La Tribune Jrive, this week urged Jewish community leaders to mest with the heads of other religious communities to devise means of safeguarding the rights of all legal residents, regardless of race or creed.
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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.