NORWAY: A Trip to School

Thin, dark-eyed Isaac Allal was the child of a poor tailor in the squalid Tunisian village of La Marsa; he grew up with the pale face and the weak lungs of a ghetto child. Then one day last month a glorious vista opened for him. Relief officials told the Allals that Isaac could go to a convalescent camp in Norway, and from there to Israel.

Isaac did not know what a "convalescent camp" was; to him it meant school. At twelve, he could neither read nor write, and school sounded wonderful. At Tunis airport, Isaac and 27 other children from...