Leon Dulzin, chairman of the World Zionist Organization Executive, urged world Jewry not to give aid, directly or indirectly, to Soviet Jewish “drop-outs”–emigres who opt to settle in countries other than Israel after arriving in Vienna from the USSR.
Addressing an assembly of the “Zionist Council of Israel” here last night, Dulzin said he recognized the moral principle of free choice for the emigrants but contended that Jewish organizations in the U.S. must weigh that principle against what he termed the even more essential one of the very existence of the aliya movement in the Soviet Union. Dulzin disclosed that the drop-out rate was running at about 60 per cent and claimed that if it rose much higher the aliya movement in Russia would be threatened by forcible extinction. He said the drop-out rate among Soviet Jewish emigres from the large Soviet cities has reached 97 per cent.
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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.