Israel is resigned to diminished aliyah from the former Soviet Union at the present time.
Although the Jewish Agency will continue to try to increase the number of immigrants, it has learned to live with the fact that for the time being, many Jews in the former Soviet republics have decided to stay put, Simcha Dinitz told the World Zionist Organization Executive at its weekly session here Tuesday.
Dinitz, who chairs the WZO and Jewish Agency Executives, said that in light of the situation, efforts to improve the quality of Jewish education in the republics will be stepped up.
He said the Jewish Agency recently conducted seminars for 400 teachers in Moscow; Minsk, Belarus; Riga, Latvia; Kishinev, Moldova; Kharkov, Ukraine; and Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
Bill Levin, head of the WZO’s Youth and Hechalutz Department, told the Executive that the department will operate 21 summer camps in the former Soviet republics, from Vilnius, Lithuania, in the west to Birobidjan, Siberia, in the east.
He said a record 6,700 youths are expected to participate.
Dinitz announced that the number of direct flights to Israel from the former Soviet republics will reach 10 this month with the inauguration of air service from Vilnius and Tbilisi, Georgia.
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