The rate of dropouts of Soviet Jews leaving the USSR with Israeli visas soared to 59 percent last month, the highest since April when the dropout rate hit a record high of 63 percent, according to figures released today by the Jewish Agency’s immigration and absorption department.
The figures showed that 730 Russian Jews who reached Vienna in October decided to go to countries other than Israel. In September, the number of dropouts was 509, about 49 percent of the Soviet Jewish emigres in Vienna. The dropout rate last month was as high as 90 percent among emigrants from Odessa and Kharkov, the Jewish Agency report said.
The dropout phenomenon is a source of serious concern in aliya circles here. It is the subject of ongoing discussions in New York where various approaches to the problem are being considered by a special committee of eight consisting of Israeli government and Jewish Agency representatives and representatives of various international Jewish organizations.
Aliya sources here claim that the high number of dropouts reflects deliberate Soviet policy to grant exit visas to Jews with the least Jewish identity in order to increase the dropout figure and discredit the immigration movement. The Jewish Agency also disclosed today that overall immigration in October amounted to 1616, down by 300 from the September figure of 1927. October saw a substantial decrease of aliya from all regions except Latin America and Western Europe.
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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.
