Ma’oz, the organization of Soviet-Jewish immigrants in Israel has demanded the resignation of Jewish Agency and World Zionist Organization Executives chairman Leon Dulzin and the entire Jewish Agency staff for their alleged mishandling of the immigration and absorption of Soviet Jews. The Ma’oz leaders also demanded the resignation of Foreign Ministry officials involved in immigration matters.
Golda Yelin, secretary of Ma’oz, said at a press conference here yesterday that a telegram calling for the resignations has been sent to Premier Menachem Begin. She said the organization is asking the government to investigate “gross failures” in the absorption of Soviet Jews, mainly academicians. She charged that this gave rise to the phenomenon of dropouts — Jews who leave the Soviet Union to go to countries other than Israel.
According to Yelin, the situation is as grave for Israel as was the Yom Kippur War, and those responsible for it should bear the consequences. She held her press conference on the eve of the latest Brussels Conference on Soviet Jewry which opens in Paris this week.
At the same time, Dulzin has asked Begin to use his good offices to see to it that new immigrants are not among the large numbers of workers being dismissed from their jobs as a consequence of the current economic retrenchment.
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.
