Chief Rabbi Moses Rosen of Rumania warned today that public expressions of alarm over the state of aliya from Rumania only hinder the departure of Jews from that country. He said Rumanian Jews will continue to emigrate to Israel, but those who want aliya to continue had best work for it quietly.
Rabbi Rosen made the statement at the end of a visit here during which he concluded an agreement of mutual cooperation with the Ministry of Religious Affairs. It calls for the Ministry to send rabbis and ritual slaughterers to Rumania where there is an acute shortage of such functionaries for the Jewish community. Rumania in return will send Israel large numbers of Torah scrolls from Rumanian synagogues that have closed down as the Jewish population dwindled.
Rabbi Rosen said that in his 28 years as Chief Rabbi of Rumania he has been very much involved in aliya problems and has learned that constantly harping on the subject and citing unverified figures only makes aliya more difficult. Since 1958, when the gates were opened for aliya statements and headlines brought only harm to the movement, he said.
The Chief Rabbi gave no specific examples, but may have been referring to allegations by tourists who returned here from Rumania last month that the liberalization of that country’s emigration policies during the past summer was only a sham to extract preferential trade treatment from the United States.
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