To the rescue
Sir, – The letter from Alice Eve Harary Sardell (“Where credit is due,” June 21) shows one of two things: Either she is jealous for not sharing the limelight with Judy Feld Carr or she is not acquainted with Carr’s 30 years of rescuing over 3,000 Syrian Jews from Syria as early as 1977.
It is unfortunate that Jewish organizations that spring like mushrooms after the rain with self- appointed presidents and staff, legitimate as they may be, find the need to justify their existence at the expense of dedicated individuals behind untold contributions and achievements.
I assume Sardell’s claim about US government involvement is correct. But according to her letter, that specific operation took place between 1989 and 1994, years that do not coincide with the history of the persecution of Syrian Jewry and their rescue.
It behooves Sardell to consult the literature written about Carr specifically, and Jews from Arab countries in general, and perhaps to conduct interviews with people who have publicly declared that they owe their lives to “Miss Judy,” as they called her.
With all due respect to the US administration, neither public records nor public figures can do justice to one of the most daring missions ever undertaken in an Arab country by one individual, and that individual is Judy Feld Carr. MAURICE ROUMANI
Beersheba
The writer is a professor in the Department of Multi- Discipline Studies at Ben- Gurion University of the Negev and founder of the J. R. Elyachar Center for the Study of Sephardi Heritage
Sir, – How tragic that a representative of the former New York- based Council for the Rescue of Syrian Jews, which I helped to create before Alice Eve Harary Sardell even joined, should find it appropriate to attack my clandestine work of rescuing over 3,000 Jews from Syria in operations from 1977 to 2001, about which Sardell knows absolutely nothing.
Public demonstrations and representations from several countries, not just the United States, certainly drew attention to the plight of Syrian Jews. For a period of a few months in 1994, Hafez Assad opened the doors for some Jews to leave, but slammed them thereafter. Over 600 who could not afford to pay for exit permits during that short period were assisted by me from Canada.
The actual methods of rescue of not only individuals but whole families were secret and will remain so.
JUDY FELD CARR Toronto/ Jerusalem