A negative attitude towards immigrants by the settled population and rising social tensions in Israel could adversely affect immigration in the years ahead, groups meeting here were told yesterday. Nahum Golan, a Jewish Agency official formerly in charge of aliya from the United States and Canada, told the weekly meeting of the Labor Zionist Movement that potential immigrants from the US are extremely sensitive to the absorption atmosphere and social problems and may consider postponing emigration until those problems are solved in Israel. “We might lose a generation that is prepared to come now,” Golan said.
Similarly, the first convention of Jewish emigres from Bokhara, in Soviet Central Asia, was told that any untoward incident or negative attitude that reached the ears of Bokhara Jews could give them second thoughts about coming to Israel. The speaker, A. Slomi, a lawyer, said that over 120,000 Bokharan Jews want to emigrate to Israel and their chances of getting visas are good. R. Moshayoff, chairman of the Association of Bokharan Jews in Israel suggested that every settled Bokharan family should “adopt” an immigrant family from the region.
According to Golan, American Jews who have been planning to settle in Israel may reconsider because the race conflict in the US seems to be easing and the economy is improving during this election year. He said that most immigrants from the US were in the 25-40 age bracket which means younger people with academic degrees. He said that some American Jews affiliated with Reform congregations are emigrating to Israel though Orthodox Jews still account for some 30 percent of the aliya.
Moshe Rivlin, director general of the Jewish Agency, replied yesterday to criticism that new immigrants were receiving benefits at the expense of the settled population. Addressing high school student editors in Jerusalem, Rivlin said the benefits granted newcomers are paid for by Jewish contributions abroad, not by the Israeli taxpayer. He said a substantial portion of these contributions have been diverted to projects aimed at narrowing the social and economic gap.
Pablo Casals, world famous cellist, was awarded the Human Rights Award of B’nai B’rith’s Caribbean District at its biannual convention in San Juan.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
