The percentage of Soviet Jewish emigres who moved to Israel in May was double the January figure, and the highest since April 1988, Soviet Jewry groups reported Friday.
The 549 emigres who made aliyah represented 14.5 percent of the month’s total of 3,779, according to both the National Conference on Soviet Jewry and the Union of Councils for Soviet Jews.
Since January, the percentage of Soviet Jews choosing Israel over the United States and other countries was no higher than 10 percent. In April 1988, 16.8 percent of the emigres made aliyah.
Although 778 fewer Jews emigrated in May than in April, the figure still comes close to the more than 4,000 per month who immigrated during the benchmark year of 1979, according to NCSJ spokesman Jerry Strober. May’s figures bring the total number of emigres since January to 17,797, only 1,168 less than the number for all of 1988.
Strober said the slight drop since April may reflect a backlog in the number of emigration requests the Soviet authorities are able to process in Moscow.
But he stressed that the increase in Israel-bound emigres seems significant.
Ten thousand Soviet Jewish tourists were able to visit Israel last year, he said, and the result may be that “they are able to go back and give family and friends a more reliable and accurate portrayal of what life in Israel is all about.”
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.
