No. 637.
Mr. Evarts
to Mr. Fairchild.
Department
of State,
Washington, November 12,
1880.
No. 80.]Sir: The accompanying copy of a letter from Mr.
Adolphe L. Sanger, the secretary of the board of delegates on civil and
religions rights of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, will explain
the circumstances under which this Department has instructed Mr. Mathews,
the United States consul at Tangier, to extend all proper countenance and
support to Mr. Levi A. Cohen, as the accredited agent of that board to watch
over the interests of Hebrews in Morocco, and to present to the consulate
authentic facts in relation to wrongs done them.
Mr. Mathews’s instructions, requiring the communication to you of all that he
may trustworthily learn respecting the ill-treatment of Jews in Morocco,
will cover the transmission to the legation of such facts as he may obtain
from Mr. Cohen.
I am, sir, &c.,
[Inclosure in No. 80.]
Mr. Sanger to Mr.
Evarts.
Union
of American Hebrew Congregations,
Board of Delegates on
Civil and Religious Rights,
New
York, October 18,
1880.
Sir: I have the honor to inform you that this
board has designated Mr. Levi A. Cohen as its accredited agent at
Tangier, Morocco, to look after the interests of our Israelitish
brethren in that locality, and with the view to his presenting to the
United States consul at Tangier, authenticated facts in relation to any
wrongs done them, so that the perpetrators thereof may be speedily
punished and proper reparation made.
I have been requested to communicate this information to the Department
of State of the United States, with the view that Mr. Mathews may be
officially advised of the facts and his co-operation invited.
In support of our action we find the within statement.
I am, with assurances of regard, very respectfully, yours,
ADOLPHE L. SANGER, Secretary.
[Appendix to inclosure.]
persecution of jews in morocco.
[From the Pall Mall Gazettei]
The Petit Marseillais prints a letter from Tangier, recounting a horrible
crime recently committed by the Moroccan governor at Estifa. During the
recent famine a Jew named Bendahan had received in his house an
unfortunate woman who implored his charity. After the famine was over,
the woman, who was a Mohammedan, begged her benefactor to allow her to
stay with him. There was no reason for regarding this as anything but an
act of gratitude on her part, or his permission as anything but another
proof of the man’s kindness of heart. The fanatic Mussulmans of the
place, however, found it intolerable that a Mohammedan woman should live
in any sort of relations with a Jew. Some of them made a formal
complaint to the governor; the wretched woman, they said, had been seen
to kiss Bendahan’s hands.
The governor straightway summoned the Jew before him, and thereupon,
without being allowed to say anything in his defense, the unfortunate
man was bastinadoed to death. Not content with this punishment, the
governor had the body nailed to the ground by the feet and hands. The
family claimed the body to give it decent burial; in return for a good
round sum, the governor eventually acceded to this request.
Informed of what had happened, the European consuls at Tangier sent a
message
[Page 1044]
to Bendahan’s son,
asking him to come to Tangier. Hearing this, and fearing that some
overscrupulous persons might think his conduct had been a little
arbitrary, the governor offered young Bendahan 7,000 piasters (£1,400)
to hold his tongue. The young man repudiated the offer and went to
Tangier.
The European ministers are now prosecuting the affair with the utmost
activity. The Italian consul, an envoy of whom had been recently well
treated at Fez, has shown himself particularly energetic.
Such a crime as this, hideous and enraging though it be, is no new thing
in Morocco; but at the present time, when events might at any moment
precipitate the European intervention which is dreaded at Fez, it rises
to the dignity of a political event.
