Immigration from the Soviet Union is increasing again, after slackening when the Persian Gulf war began five weeks ago.
About 700 olim arrived Tuesday, on the heels of 601 who arrived at Ben-Gurion Airport on three flights Monday.
Jewish Agency Chairman Simcha Dinitz disclosed that 12,571 immigrants had arrived in Israel since the outbreak of war.
“One of Saddam Hussein’s goals was to create conditions that would hurt aliyah,” but he failed, Dinitz told a Golda Meir Scholarship award ceremony at the Hebrew University.
Malev, the Hungarian national airline, resumed flights to Tel Aviv on Monday. Malev carries large numbers of Soviet Jews in the absence of direct flights from Moscow.
Dinitz expressed hope that other foreign airlines that suspended flights when war was imminent in the region would also restore service.
He praised the quality of Soviet aliyah, stressing the large proportion of professionals and academicians among them.
“This wave of aliyah, together with Israeli university graduates, will change the face of Israel in a few years,” Dinitz predicted.
“The country will become a world center of science, technology and culture,” he said.
But Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir sounded a cautionary note. “There are voices in the Soviet Union calling for the cessation of aliyah,” he told the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, immigrants arriving at the airport received colorful Purim masks for their children in addition to gas masks for all.
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.
