Eliahu Essas, the Soviet Jewish aliya activist who became an Orthodox Jew while still in the USSR, spoke critically of the way Russian Jews have been absorbed in Israel. According to the 40-year-old Essas, too much stress has been placed on material benefits and not enough on the “spiritual” needs of the immigrants. He claimed this contributed to the high dropout rate among Soviet olim. “If coming to Israel is only about apartments and cars and not about aliya, going up to the holy land, then it is no wonder that the dropout rate has reached 80 percent or more,” said Essas.
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.
