Israel must receive 250,000 immigrants a year, Eliahu Dobkin, head of the Immigration Department of the Jewish Agency, told the 61st meeting of the Council of the Histadruth here today, The Council is holding its first meeting since the proclamation of Israeli statehood.
Dr. Chaim Hoffman, Jewish Agency representative in Germany, stressed the urgency of immediate immigration into Israel of Jews from Europe and said that time should not be wasted in economic planning for absorption and resettlement of immigrants but all efforts should be concentrated on the largest immigration within the shortest time.
Joseph Frumkin, Histadruth economic expert, outlined a project for the absorption of another 100,000 immigrants within a year and called on the Histadruth to send envoys to Europe to train prospective Immigrants for settlement here. He said that 13,000 recent immigrants had settled in Haifa, bringing the Jewish population of that city to 95,000. Future arrivals, he stated, will be nettled in Tiberias and Safad, to Galilee and a large proportion in Jerusalem. He called for a gigantic housing scheme for the country’s anticipated immigrants and proposed a worldwide campaign to raise the millions of dollars necessary to finance this.
The Council voted the equivalent of $500,000 from Histadruth funds for assistance in resettling immigrants and adopted a resolution proclaiming that “our gates must remain open to the largest possible immigration.
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