— The number of Jews who left the USSR in February totaled 1407, the Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry reported today. The SSSJ noted that although there were reports that the Soviet Union was increasing the number of exit visas, the February number was only a “tiny rise” from the 850 who left in January. It is “way below” the average monthly emigration of 1780 in 1980 the SSSJ said. The monthly rate in 1979 was 4200. The SSSJ reported that of the 1407 Soviet Jews who arrived in Vienna last month 1195 or 85 percent were dropouts and decided to go to some country other than Israel.
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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.