By EDWIN EYTAN
(Copyright, 1962,
Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Inc.)
* * *
Editor's Note: For the first time
since the creation of Israel another
country is receiving the bulk of a
Jewish emigration movement. Ten
thousand Tunisian Jews have fled
their homes since the Bizerte crisis,
and have settled in France. This
article describes the emergence of
these new refugees.
5:
*
someone I knew very well and
who is trustworthy."
For the Tunisian Jews these
cases denote a violent break with
their past of cooperation in con-
fidence with their Moslem neigh-
bors. The Bizerte crisis was the
traumatic shock which dispelled
their illusions. Many thought at
the time "if this can happen to
the French who are powerful
and well protected, this will hap-
pen to us too."
Tunisia is a Moslem Arab
country—the constitution's Para-
graph Six clearly states the will
of the Tunisian nation "to re-
main faithful to the teachings of
Islam, to the unity of the Grand
Maghreb, to its unity with the
Arab family of nations" — and
many Jews feel that this ten-
dency becomes more concrete
with every passing day.
Economically the Jews .have
been hard hit. Mainly members
of the middle class, they have
suffered incomparably more than
the rest of the population • from
the stringent economic restric-
tions adopted by the government.
PARIS—Since the end of the
war, Marseilles has served as the
main port of departure for Eu-
rope's surviving- Jews. Over half
a million embarked there to flee
the persecutions and the .memo-
ries of the Old World's holocaust
for a new life in a new country.
Now, the old Phoenician har-
bor on the Mediterranean Sea
has become a point of arrival.
Ten thousand Tunisian Jews,
fleeing their homes, have reach-
ed it since the Bizerte crisis,
July last.
By a strange paradox, the pier
of the Trans-Mediterranean Line
—whose ships ply between
France and North Africa — is
adjacent to that of the Israeli
Jewish families fear for
Zim Line, from which hundreds
of thousands have left for Israel. their children. Already, young:
The first view of France the ref- sters experience considerable
ugees have is that of a few cus- difficulty in attending high
toms and police sheds, in front schools and universities. A "de
of which a small crowd of rela- facto" numerus clause prevails
in state institutions. Jewish
tives and friends are massed.
There is the eternal and tragic schools such as the Alliance
picture of refugees on the move: Israelite Universelle and ORT
women carrying pats and par- are being Arabized.
Over all these factors looms
cels, sometimes a baby in their
arms, children tense and nervous, the fear that the country's gates
men clinging to their heavy suit-
cases, their arms full of coats.
A few elderly people are helped
down the slippery planks by so-
cial workers, two hospital cases
are carried down on stretchers.
may one day close on them as
they have on their Moroccan
City of Hope Discovery May Shed
New Light on Hereditary Diseases
brethren.
The French consulates in Tu-
nisia grant visas on the spot to
all Tunisian Jews, and the au-
thorities are not trying to pre-
vent their departure for the time
being. A few categories of peo-
ple, termed "indispensable," such
as school teachers and engineers,
are not granted their passports,
however. Travel documents are
obtainable in two to three weeks
after application, but Jews, like
all departing citizens and tour-
ists, are not allowed to export
local or foreign currency, and
must pay exit dues on their be-
longings.
And so they arrive in Mar-
seilles, often alone and lost in
the new world which greets them
with unfamiliar cold, rain and
wind.
A new theory about the X-
chromosomes of women may
shed new light on the bio-
chemistry of human heredity
and explain puzzling variations
in the occurrence of certain
hereditary diseases like hemo-
philia.
Proposed by Dr. Ernest Beut-
ler, chairman of medicine at the
City of Hope, the National
Medical Center alder Jewish
auspices at Duante, Calif., the
theory is based on his test-
system using an enzyme called
glucose - 6 - phosphate dehydro-
genase, or g-6-pd, found in red
blood cells.
W. German Republic
Honors Jewish Leader
BONN, (JTA) — The Grand
Service Cross, one of the high-
est awards of the West German
Federal Republic, was con-
ferred on Dr. Heinrich Georg
Van Damm, secretary-general
of the Central Council of Jews
in Germany.
In a citation accompanying
the award, President Heinrich
Luebke praised Van Damm's ef-
forts in the reconstruction of
Jewish life in Germany.
Beutler suggests, however,
that one of the two X-chromo-
somes becomes genetically in-
active—apparently at random—
while the female is still in the
embryonic stage of life. From
that point forward, each of her
cells contains only one active
X-chromosome. In some cells,
this is the X inherited from her
father; in others, it is the X
inherited from her mother.
Every woman would thus rep-
resent a mosaic of cells in
terms of her X-chromosomes,
Beutler notes in a report in the
It has always been thought
that the two X-chromosomes
in human female cells are
equally active in the process
of development.
,
current "Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences."
Following up on previous
research by Susumu Ohno,
Ph.D., also of the City of
Hope, Beutler found evidence
of two distinct types of red
cells in the blood of a group
of women whose body cells
were known to have on their
X-chromosomes one normal
and one abnormal gene. One
type showed normal g-6-pd
levels, the o t h e r, deficient
levels.
Beutler suggests that perhaps
a similar process involving the
mutant gene for hemophilia, or
other sex-linked hereditary dis-
orders, may explain marked
differences in the development
of disease symptoms in dif-
ferent individuals.
Co-authors of the present
paper with Beutler are Mary
Yeh, B.A., and Virgil F. Fair-
banks, M.D., both of the City
of Hope.
Miami Jewish Group
Sponsors Negev City
MIAMI—The establishment of
a new city in Israel's Negev
Desert will be sponsored by the
Greater Miami Jewish Commu-
nity, it was announced by Leon
J. Ell, president of the Jewish
National Fund Council here.
Want ads get quick results !
They arrive for their new
life 'with only one dinar (the
equivalent of $2) in their pock-
ets, and no foreign currency
whatsoever. Most of them man-
age to take with them a few
pieces of family jewelry and
large quantities of new winter
clothing.
They look well fed and well
dressed. Most of them belong to
the once prosperous middle class:
shopkeepers from Sfax, bank and
insurance officials who once
worked for the large French cor-
porations, government officials
from Tunis, artisans from Bi-
zerte.
The rich and the poor have
stayed behind; the former be-
cause they are unable to dispose
of their property and businesses,
even at a considerable loss; the
latter, because they are too poor
even to afford the fare and the
heavy winter clothing they will
need in France.
In spite of their former pros-
perity, those not expected by rel-
atives or friends queue up before
the Jewish welfare fund desk in
the port. Most want a small loan
to pay for their taxi into town
and for their first nights at a
local hotel.
"I never thought Fd come
down to this," a well dressed
middle aged man tells me. His
wife, accompanied by two chil-
dren in their teens, adds: "It
is better, however, than staying
on in Tunisia."
"We are surrounded by Arabs
and feel that the country is
incessantly moving towards an
Islamization. Since the rap-
prochement between Tunisia
and the Arab League, we know
that our days are numbered,"
a former lawyer says.
An economist, who served for
many years as head of the Gov-
ernment's Investment Authority,
adds: "We relied on Bourguiba,
but with the start Of the Bizerte
crisis we felt that he was losing
his grip. The Destour's (main
political party) Young Turks
are taking over. We believe
them to be xenophobic and anti-
Jewish." A woman in the queue
breaks in: "Bourguiba is mortal
like all of us. And after him
there is nothing left for us."
A few more cite instances of
discrimination and anti - Jewish
measures. Police brutalities are
also evoked, but most of the
cases recalled happened "to
Abraham I ona
raham Jonas was
When, in the 1850
and Quincy, Illinois,
practicing law
an whose name was also
another youn
Abraham— e Lincoln— as doing much
the same
ng at Spring
Both
re elected to
ture wh e they met an
friends. n 1856, for e
elected
and at
and ne
a
nominate
e famous
large part,
Lincoln-Douglas • ebates on slavery which
were to play such an important part in
bringing Abraham Lincoln to the atten-
tion of the country. And at the nominating
convention of 1860,. again with Abraham
Jonas' help, the man who was to become
one of our greatest presidents this time
ake Lincoln President
won the nomination.
ate
So, from their earliest days in t
e his
col
legislature, till the d
arted on
s frien
n from which
e long
, Abraham Jonas
he w:o4d n
s side.
vas ev r at Li
r forgot his friend and poli-
Lincoln
er. During the Civil War, in
tical
am Jonas' family, too, "brother was
arrayed against brother." The son who
was a Confederate had been captured by
the Union forces. In the Lincoln papers
there is this note which not only expresses
the affection he felt for his old friend, but
also Abraham Lincoln's great humanity.
"Allow Charles H. Jonas, now a prisoner
of war at Johnson's Island, a parole of
three weeks to visit his dying father, Abraham
Jonas, at Quincy, Illinois. A. Lincoln."
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1 1 — THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS -- Frida y, February 16, 1962
Tunisian Jewry in Flight