World Zionist Organization chairman Leon Dulzin warned today of a possible 70 percent and more rate of Soviet dropouts at Vienna. He said that would endanger the entire struggle for aliya inside the Soviet Union. Just back from New York, he told newsmen here that he had urged HIAS and the Joint Distribution Committee to desist from their activities at the Vienna transit station. He felt the Jewish Agency should be the only organ operating there.
Dulzin, who is also Jewish Agency acting chairman, disclosed that dropout rates over the past two months had topped 60 percent. If they went up to 70 or 80 percent, which was unfortunately possible, he said, this could be a death blow for the aliya struggle.
“The activists inside Russia are fighting for aliya to Israel, not for emigration to the U.S. and Canada,” he said. If “they see there are no fruits for their labors, they will feel there is nothing to fight for.”
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.
