Immigrant Absorption is Priority in 1990 Budget of Jewish Agency

The Board of Governors of the Jewish Agency for Israel approved a $606 million budget Thursday, the vast majority of which will be allotted to the absorption of immigrants.

The budget, adopted on the final day of the board’s weeklong regular mid-winter meeting, reflects the massive increase in the volume of immigration expected from the Soviet Union during the remainder of this year.

More than 8,000 Soviet immigrants arrived from Jan. 1 through Feb. 21. An influx of 10,000 a month is expected by June, if adequate transportation is available, agency officials said.

Vice Premier Shimon Peres, one of the main speakers at the closing session, predicted that the Soviet authorities would approve direct flights from Moscow to Tel Aviv as diplomatic relations improve between Israel and the Soviet Union.

That, in turn, depends on positive developments in the peace process, Peres stressed. “Peace and immigration are complementary, not contradictory,” he added.

The chairman of the Board of Governors, Mendel Kaplan, painted a rosy picture of absorption prospects for Soviet olim.

“There has never been a more effective framework for absorption,” Kaplan said in an interview with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

The ministerial aliyah committee is working “very well,” and there is full cooperation between all the parties involved in aliyah, he said.

Kaplan said one of the keys to successful absorption is decentralization and privatization. He explained that every immigrant family receives the equivalent of $11,000 a year to purchase the necessary goods to start a new life.

35,000 IMMIGRANTS PROCESSED

The ultimate proof that direct absorption is working, said Kaplan, is that there are still 1,000 vacancies at the absorption centers, even though 35,000 immigrants will have been processed by the end of the current fiscal year on March 31, almost double the annual number in previous years.

He stressed, however, that continued success depends on three factors: the availability of housing; the strengthening of social services; and the creation of employment opportunities.

The last is the most problematic, Kaplan admitted. He recommended that job opportunities be tailored to the specific talents and skills offered by Soviet Jews.

Kaplan, nevertheless, is optimistic. He believes the construction industry will be boosted by housing starts — some 25 projects this year — and that the increased purchasing power of the immigrants will benefit the entire economy.

Of the $606 million budget for the 1990 fiscal year, which begins April 1, $200 million will go to the Immigration and Absorption Department.

Together with funds from other departments directed toward absorption needs, a full 70 percent of the agency’s budget will go for that purpose, Kaplan said, three times more than was spent in the past.

Kaplan dismissed suggestions that American Jewry has been slow to respond to the challenge of the immigration wave. “It took Israelis until December to understand the scope of this aliyah, so it took the Diaspora another month,” he said.