The emigration of Jews from Rumania and other Eastern European countries which allow them to go to Israel is a “mere crack” in the Iron Curtain, the Mayor of Jerusalem, Gershon Agron, said at a press conference here today. Mr. Agron, who came to this country for a month’s tour of 12 major cities on behalf of the American Committee for Labor Israel, was honored at a luncheon given by the committee.
Mr, Agron expressed the hope that “the crack will widen and that the 100,000 men, women and children we expect to receive and absorb this year will be the thin end of the wedge, the forerunners of those to come” from various East European countries.
The Mayor of Jerusalem, who will be received at City Hall tomorrow by Mayor Robert F. Wagner, explained the impact of the 100, 000 immigrants on Israel. He noted that 100, 000 meant an increase of five percent in the total population–the equivalent of 9, 000, 000 immigrants entering the United States. It would “not be easy even for America to have to cope with an accretion of these dimensions, ” he said, appealing to American Jewry to help Israel absorb the newcomers.
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