More than $40 million was wired to Israel on Friday to assist the resettlement of Soviet Jews there, United Jewish Appeal officials have announced.
The $40 million is the first cash monies of the nearly $100 million so far pledged in the UJA’s Operation Exodus campaign to resettle Soviet Jews in Israel. The organization will officially begin its $420 million 1990 campaign Tuesday.
The announcement was made by Morton Kornreich, UJA national chairman, and Marvin Lender, Operation Exodus chairman.
“These sums are the result of the compelling cause of Soviet Jews coming to Israel,” UJA President Stanley Horowitz said.
Israeli officials estimate that 230,000 Soviet Jews will arrive in Israel in 1990, up from earlier estimates of 100,000 new arrivals. In response, UJA officials are now considering increasing their original $420 million goal.
“The numbers are increasing so much, there will have to be a revision down the line,” a UJA spokesman said.
The $40 million was raised by 38 UJA federations nationwide.
Another $5.6 million was pledged last week in Israel by American Jewish leaders on a Prime Minister’s Operation Exodus Mission.
Operation Exodus will officially begin April 3, when Vice President Dan Quayle and 50 U.S. senators and members of Congress are scheduled to join hundreds of Jewish leaders in Washington for a “Freedom Seder,” electronically linking Jews in the United States, Israel and the Soviet Union.
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