Israel Radio’s Vienna correspondent reported today that 20 of the 29 emigrants from the Soviet Union who arrived there during the past three days will leave for new homes in Israel tomorrow. This is the highest percentage of Soviet Jews to come to Israel in recent years, and follows the new Jewish Agency arrangement whereby only emigrants with “first degree” family relationships in the U.S. will be helped by HIAS and the Joint Distribution Committee to go to America. All others will be helped to come to Israel, in conformity with their exit permits, or will be left on their own, to make their own way in the world.
Jewish Agency officials say an overwhelming number of new arrivals in Vienna from the USSR have said they would go on to Israel if they are not helped to go the U.S. The attitude of Austrian Chancellor Bruno Kreisky to the new policy is not yet known. He has in the past complained that Soviet immigrants to Israel were being made to settle on the West Bank.
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.
