The Israeli legation here announced last night that “the first official Jewish emigrant from the Soviet Union” passed through Czechoslovakia yesterday on his way to Israel. The legation was quoted as saying it had no information on the possibility of further Jewish emigration from Russia.
The legation announced that 15,000 Czechoslovak Jews have applied for Israeli visas while approximately 2,500 Jews have already left this country for the Jewish state. A member of the legation estimated at 10,000 the number of Jews who will remain in Czechoslovakia when all visa applications are cleared.
Reuters reported today that the Israeli Minister to Czechoslovakia and Hungary, Ehud Avriel, was now in Budapest conducting negotiations with the Hungarian Government for emigration of Jews from that country to Israel. The British news agency said that the talks were proceeding slowly, adding that although Hungary does not object in principle to emigration of Jews from the country, the Budapest government is concentrating its discussions on the number of Jews who would be permitted to leave, when they should emigrate and under what conditions.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
