Indications that emigration of Jews from Rumania to permit the reunion of families separated since World War II may be resumed were reported in New York today. The migration came to a temporary halt last month.
The movement started toward the end of 1958 after an interruption of nearly seven years. The Rumanian Government let it be known that in authorizing this emigration it was acting on humanitarian grounds, recognizing that many Rumanian Jews had relatives abroad, mainly in Israel, with whom they wished to be reunited.
In the public attention given to this development here and abroad, informed sources said today, there had been a tendency to place an incorrect interpretation on the motives underlying the Rumanian move and the framework within which the emigration was proceeding. Hope was held out that this misunderstanding would not delay the resumption of the emigration movement.
(In Johannesburg, Col. Moshe Pearlman, director of the Israel State Information Service, expressed hope that “those countries which recently started on humanitarian policies of allowing Jews to emigrate and join their relatives in Israel will resume these policies. We in Israel welcome these humanitarian policies and are glad to have these immigrants join their relations in Israel.”)
A hint that the emigration may be resumed soon was given recently by Philip Klutznick, president of B’nai B’rith, before a United Jewish Appeal conference. Mr. Klutz-nick described a two-hour meeting with the Rumanian Minister in Washington and ex–pressed his confidence that “the Rumanian Government, having been moved by humanitarian considerations, will not fail, because of certain misunderstandings, to permit this process to continue until its consummation.”
It is understood that there are some 15,000 Jews in Rumania who have received passports and are awaiting permission to leave the country to be reunited with their families abroad. Some of them seek reunion with kin from whom they have been separated since the war days. Others are anxious to rejoin close family members who left the country in the departing groups earlier this year. Most of them, apparently, liquidated their affairs in Rumania and gave up homes and jobs in preparation for their anticipated departure.
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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.
