Well informed Jewish sources here described as “exaggerated” a report from Moscow published in the Los Angeles Times today that Jews have been leaving the Soviet Union in record numbers since the beginning of 1971. The sources told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that they had absolutely no confirmation of such an exodus of Jews which Times correspondent Harry Trimborn called “unprecedented in the 53-year history of the Soviet Union.” The Jewish sources said there may have been some increase in the number of exit permits granted Jews in recent days but observed that the situation was too fluid to bear out the Los Angeles Times report. According to that report, the Jewish emigrants “represent all age levels and virtually all occupational levels except the very highest, despite repeated public pronouncements by Soviet officials that Jews of military age and those holding important positions will not be permitted to leave.” The Times attributed its information to “sources that cannot be identified” but said it represented “the latest and closest approximation of the actual figures of Soviet Jewish emigration ever disclosed publicly.”
The Moscow sources said more than 470 Soviet Jews have been allowed to emigrate to Israel since the first of the year, “a figure far higher than the 92 recently disclosed in Jerusalem.” According to sources in Russia, a total of 1,000 Jews were permitted to leave during all of last year. The Times report said the number of Soviet Jews departing for Israel has ranged from two to as many as 70 a day. A low point was reached during the world conference on Soviet Jewry held in Brussels on Feb. 23-26 which the Kremlin labeled an anti-Soviet provocation. But since the conference “there has been a tremendous upswing of Jews allowed to leave. The average of about 25 departures daily is based on a conservative tally of Soviet Jewish emigration in recent weeks,” Trimborn reported. A Jewish source informed the JTA today that a Jewish theatrical youth group in Vilna, Lithuania has been barred from further activities by Soviet authorities without explanation. The source said the group functioned within the framework of the local trade union movement and had been permitted to tour Lithuanian cities but not to enter the Soviet Union proper.
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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.
