Pinhas Sapir, chairman of the Jewish Agency and World Zionist Organization Executives, said today that “we must increase our efforts and unify our power in the struggle for Soviet Jewry.” Sapir issued this urgent statement at the opening of the Jewish Agency’s Board of Governors meeting here.
He said that: 100,000 Jews have come to Israel from the Soviet Union since 1971 and that the number of emigrants from the USSR each month should not be measured according to the narrow view of how many do or do not emigrate in any given month. Sapir also noted that the number of drop-outs– Soviet Jews who leave the USSR but who do not go to Israel — is a very serious and grave problem and can adversely affect the idea of aliya.
Max Fisher of Detroit, chairman of the Board of Governors, said that after his discussions in the last few weeks in Washington he was convinced that friends of Israel in the Administration and the Congress want Jews to continue with their activities to save Soviet Jewry. The session today dealt with Jewish Agency activities in the last few months. The session tomorrow will focus on budgetary problems.
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