Another planeload of Jewish immigrants form Russia arrived here this morning as Absorption Ministry officials sought to forestall objections on the part of some of the newcomers and their relatives over their housing allotments. Leaflets were distributed to hundreds of relatives waiting at the airport gates urging them not to give the new arrivals “ill advice” as to where to live.
The leaflets, signed by Hillel Ashkenazi, director general of the Absorption Ministry, appealed to the relatives to consider the “honor of the immigrants and the country.” Relatives greeting their families on landing have frequently counseled them to refuse to accept housing in certain areas considered undesireable. This has usually led to sit-downs at the airport by one or more families who refuse to be sent to the towns they are assigned to. Most of the sit-downs have been staged by families arriving from the Soviet Georgian Republic who insist on being settled in close proximity to other Jews from the same region.
The immigrants landing today came from Georgia, Odessa, Vilna, Riga and Vinogradov. Another planeload landed Friday. Absorption Ministry officials said a plane-a-day was expected this week with a record number of arrivals from the USSR. Ashkenazi said Friday that if the rate of influx continues, more than twice as many Jewish emigres will have arrived in Israel this month than in all of 1970. Up to now the rate has been two planeloads a week, each plane carrying more than 100 passengers.
Meanwhile, the Georgian Jewish community in Ashkelon agreed Friday to accept the keys to a temporary synagogue provided them by the Absorption Ministry until a permanent one can be built. They had earlier refused to accept the temporary premises after being told by religious zealots that if they did no permanent house of worship would ever be built.
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.
