A total of 948 Americans and Canadians left for Israel during the month of August for permanent settlement, bringing to 2,717 the number of Americans going to Israel for settlement during the first eight months of this year, according to Rabbi Mordecai Kirschblum, associate head of the Immigration and Absorption Department of the Jewish Agency in Israel, and Avraham Frank, director of the Israel Aliyah Center here.
Noting that the highest figure for any single prior year was 1,717, Rabbi Kirschblum said that more Americans left for Israel during the eight months than in any previous single 12-month period, including more than 150 professionals and their families. He added that it was expected that the full 1968 total would top the 3,000 mark “which was our target figure” and that “now we are faced with the problem of gearing Israel’s absorptive capacity to meet an even increasing number of American and Canadian settlers.”
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