Charlotte Jacobson, chairman of the Soviet Jewry Research Bureau of the National Conference on Soviet Jewry, reported today that Jewish emigration from the Soviet Union hit its lowest monthly figure in history as only 81 Jews arrived in Vienna in January.
According to Jacobson, “more than half of those visas were granted in only two cities — Riga and Odessa — which indicates that hundreds of thousands of Jews throughout the USSR were unable to emigrate to Israel, their homeland.
“The first month of the new year has shown that the Soviet authorities have not relented in their strangling of Jewish emigration; in fact, they have tightened their grasp.”
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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.