Soviet Aliyah Rate Picks Up After Big Drop in February

The pace of aliyah from the Soviet Union picked up quickly at the end of last week, as the fighting ended in the Persian Gulf.

During the final five days of February, about 500 Soviet immigrants per day arrived in Israel, about twice the daily rate during the first five weeks of the war.

But war jitters brought the monthly immigration total for February down to 7,164 Soviet Jews, according to the Jewish Agency for Israel. That is just over half the number of Soviet Jews who arrived in January and not even a fourth of the record 35,000 who arrived in December.

Concern about the Iraqi missile attacks on Israel, however, did not deter a large number of Ethiopian Jews from immigrating last month. Aliyah from Ethiopia totaled 1,100, the highest rate since the end of Operation Moses six years ago.

Jewish Agency Chairman Simcha Dinitz said Soviet aliyah should increase gradually during the next few weeks, reaching its prewar pace in about a month.

In the immigrant transit station in Bucharest, Romania, about 10 times more immigrants arrived last week than the number that came during the war.

Almost all of the Soviet Jews going through Bucharest to Israel arrive by train. Arrangements to leave by train can be made much more quickly than flight arrangements.

According to the National Conference on Soviet Jewry in New York, February’s immigration figures bring Soviet Jewish aliyah for 1991 so far to 20,524. The Jewish Agency and the Israeli government expect some 300,000 Soviet Jews to arrive by the end of the year.

VIENNA ‘LEAK’ PREVENTED

Concern arose last month among officials in the Jewish Agency and the government about “leaks” in the emigration pipeline that brings most Soviet Jews to Israel.

What appears to have been an attempt to reopen the Vienna route for “dropouts” was nipped in the bud by the Austrian authorities.

During the 1970s and 1980s, close to 150,000 “dropouts” left the Soviet Union with visas to Israel, but changed their destination once they reached Vienna.

Last month, some 20 families of Soviet Jews with exit visas to Israel sought permission from Austria to stay temporarily in Vienna until the war footing ended in Israel.

The Austrian Embassy in Moscow, suspecting that the emigrants were would-be dropouts, rejected their request. The Austrians, like other Western European nations, are fearful of creating precedents of any kind that would encourage immigration of Soviet citizens, Jews or non-Jews, to their countries.

Jewish Agency leaders at first blamed the New York-based Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society for organizing the Vienna initiative, but HIAS strenuously denied the accusation.

In fact, HIAS informed the Jewish Agency of the Austrian situation, according to Karl Zuker-man, the agency’s executive vice president.

HIAS assists Jews who wish to immigrate to the United States, including those from the Soviet Union. A maximum of 40,000 Soviet Jews will be allowed to immigrate to the United States this fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30.

On Monday, HIAS reported that 1,713 Soviet Jews immigrated to the United States last month, up from 1,300 in January.

While HIAS is committed to sticking with the annual ceiling of 40,000 Soviet Jews, the Washington-based Union of Councils for Soviet Jews has proposed accelerating the immigration of those who have already applied to come to the United States.

Citing deteriorating conditions for Jews in the Soviet Union, the Union of Councils wants to launch an emergency “evacuation” of between 150,000 to 200,000 Soviet Jews to America and other countries.

Immigration authorities in Israel are upset at the proposal, maintaining that it will persuade Soviet Jews who have decided to make aliyah to apply for U.S. entry visas instead.

Israeli officials stress that the transit stations in Eastern Europe can now handle up to 50,000 immigrants a month and will soon be expanded to a capacity of 70,000 a month. That, they say, should allow all who want to leave to do so speedily.