There are more than 9, 600 Jewish families in Rumania who are split with some of their members in Israel and the others in Rumania, Idov Cohen, a leader of the Association of Rumanian Immigrants in Israel, reported to a press conference here today.
In a plea for a more humanitarian policy on the part of the Bucharest authorities, Mr. Cohen noted that they admitted the validity of his plea by allowing 50 to 60 Jews, most of them sick and aged, to leave for Israel. At this pace, however, he pointed out, it will take 20 years for some older people to rejoin their children in the Jewish State.
He noted that in 1950 Rumania had allowed 47, 000 Jews to quit the country for Israel and currently was holding the number to 400 a year. Pointing to the more liberal attitude of Warsaw and Budapest, Mr. Cohen asserted there was no reason for Rumania’s current policy.
Furthermore, he asserted, many Jews had been fired from important government and industrial administrative posts and were jobless. Their economic distress, he said, added urgency to their need to emigrat.
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.
