More than three million rubles, the equivalent of $3,4 million, have been paid so far by Soviet Jews for exit visas enabling them to immigrate to Israel, Gen. Uzzi Narkiss, head of the Jewish Agency’s immigration department, disclosed in Haifa yesterday. The visa fee is a special tax levied on emigrants from the Soviet Union based on the level of higher education they received at the expense of the Soviet State.
According to Narkiss, 113 Jewish families that left Russia in the last two weeks paid the equivalent of $805,000 for their visas. He said the highest fee paid by an individual was the 14,000 ruble ($16,000) tax levied on Leib Syrkin, a geographer from Moscow. Narkiss reported that a record 3700 Soviet immigrants arrived in Israel in Oct. He said they included 600 from the Soviet Georgian Republic and 300 from Bokhara.
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