In response to a personal appeal from Israeli Premier Menachem Begin, HIAS — the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society — today agreed to cooperate on a trial basis with a Jewish Agency plan for the handling of Soviet Jews arriving in Vienna. The plan, under which HIAS will assist Soviet Jewish emigrants only if they have first degree relatives in the U.S. or other Western countries, was introduced by the Jewish Agency last August.
HIAS participation, some terms of which are still to be negotiated, was approved by its board of directors and was announced by Edwin Shapiro, the organization’s president.
Shapiro said HI AS would test the plan for a three-month period starting around Jan. I “in the hope that it will result in a heavier flow of Jews from the Soviet Union.” He noted that only 1,136 Jews had left the USSR during the past three months — “the lowest number in the last 10 years.”
“At the end of three months,” Shapiro said, “the results will be evaluated and a determination made about continuing the new policy.” He disclosed that he and HIAS executive vice president Leonard Seidenman had met with Begin in Jerusalem Nov. 22. At that meeting the Israeli leader appealed to the organization to try out the plan.
BACKGROUND OF THE ISSUE
In a statement issued today, HIAS explained that under a long-standing arrangement between the Jewish Agency and HIAS, Jewish refugees arriving in Vienna from the Soviet Union have been met by Jewish Agency workers and urged to continue on to Israel. Until last August, if they declined to do so, the Jewish Agency referred them to HIAS, which provided assistance in emigrating to lands other than Israel.
“In August, however, the Jewish Agency unilaterally announced it would no longer refer to HIAS those Soviet Jews who on their arrival in Vienna chose not to go to Israel, “the HIAS statement said. “The only exceptions were those who had spouses, parents or children in the U.S.”
HIAS responded at that time that it was “not prepared to refuse its services to Soviet Jewish emigrants who have not been specifically referred by the Jewish Agency.” Since August, HIAS has been assisting such
emigrants who have sought its help on their own initiative.
Under the trial plan, the HIAS statement noted, it is expected that Soviet Jews who do not wish to go to Israel will seek the help of other refugee and resettlement organizations, both Jewish and non-Jewish. Funds for Soviet refugee resettlement to the U.S. are furnished largely by the U.S. government.
DULZIN WELCOMES HIAS DECISION
(In Jerusalem, Leon Dulzin, chairman of the Jewish Agency and World Zionist Organization Executives, welcomed the decision by HIAS to cooperate with the Jewish Agency plan. This arrangement had been in effect last August, but was then dropped by HIAS, he noted.
(During the time it was in effect many Soviet Jews who would have sought HIAS’ aid went instead to the anti-Zionist Satmar Hasidic Rav Tov organization. Dulzin told Israel Radio today that even if fewer Soviet Jews sought Rav Tov’s aid under the new HIAS arrangement, Jewish organizations in the United States should organize themselves against Rav Tov. “HIAS is part of the national (U.S.) Jewish organizations,” Dulzin said. “Rav Tov is an anti-Zionist, ant-Israel organization.”)
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