Jewish Agency Treasurer Leon Dulzin told the international conference of Jewish journalists here yesterday that there was serious concern in Israel that Soviet authorities might use the high rate of “drop-outs” among Jews leaving the USSR with Israeli visas as an excuse to reduce the number of visas granted “or even totally close down the gates for Jews.”
Dulzin disclosed that until now, Israel has sent 186,000 visas to the Soviet Union at the request of Jews there. The Soviet visa offices will issue exit permits only if the applications are accompanied by Israeli visas. Dulzin said that in 1976, 14,261 Jews left the USSR but only 51 percent of them came to Israel. The rest dropped out in Vienna and many are now in Rome waiting for entry permits for the United States, he said.
The danger is Dulzin said, that the Soviet authorities may take advantage of the fact that the permits given to Jews applying for emigration state specifically that their destination is Israel. The high percentage who do not go to Israel could give the Soviets a pretext to stifle the entire emigration movement, he warned. Therefore, some sort of solution must be found to the “drop-out” problem, he said.
JEWISH PRESS IN DECLINE
The journalists’ conference, which ends tonight, is being attended by about 100 Jewish newsmen and editors from 16 countries and 100 of their Israeli colleagues. They were received by President Ephraim Katzir at his residence yesterday afternoon where a symposium on the general and Jewish press took place with the participation of the chief editors of Israel’s major newspapers. The journalists also met with Minister of Tourism Moshe Kol who spoke of improved prospects to increase Jewish and non-Jewish tourism in Israel.
Discussions at the conference dealt with the various problems confronting Jewish journalism all over the world. It was noted regretfully that the Jewish press is in the process of disappearing in many countries, Yiddish dailies and weeklies especially are on the decline and not many young journalists pursue, careers in Jewish journalism.
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