Emigration of Jews from Poland to Israel is now in effect halted through new regulations issued last week by the Polish Government, it was reported this week-end in a cable from Warsaw to the New York Times. Declaring that large numbers of Jews have been returning from the Soviet Union to Poland as repatriates, the Warsaw report stated:
“Until last Monday virtually all of these Jews went on to Israel as soon as transport and other arrangements could be made for them. Since Monday, however, this situation has changed. Polish police headquarters has rejected all emigration applications of Jews from the Soviet Union. These Jews have been told that since they returned here as Poles they must assume Polish citizenship and apply for permission to emigrate “in a normal way.”
A Foreign Ministry spokesman declined to give any reason for the change in regulation, the report continued. There was speculation that the change had resulted from representations made by the Soviet Union, possibly after Egypt had brought the situation to the notice of the Soviet Government. “The attitude of the Soviet Government seems to be that Jews wanting to go to Israel, whether or not of Polish origin, should apply in the Soviet Union for permission to emigrate and not for repatriation to Poland,” the report said.
The Warsaw report states that 2, 000 Jews recently arrived from the Soviet Union now are billeted in and around Warsaw. Many of them have already received permission to leave for Israel and the change in regulations does not affect them. The government had placed some hotels and homes at the disposal of Jews from the Soviet Union waiting to go to Israel. Now, according leaders of the Jewish community here, returning Jews are to be sent to a number of small towns in western Poland where they will be expected to work and wait their turn for permission to emigrate, “But it is in the small towns that anti-Semitism has been strongest in Poland during recent months. ” the report stresses.
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