Ways Sought to End Hostility Toward New Immigrants

Government and Jewish Agency leaders are trying to counter a rising tide of sentiment against immigration which holds that newcomers benefit at the expense of the settled population and the poor. Finance Minister Pinhas Sapir, addressing the convention of the Israeli Rotarian Club, cited the record growth of Israel’s gross national product and observed that “were it not for aliya these achievements would have been impossible.”

Sapir acknowledged Israel’s severe social problems and warned that unless they are solved “the whole future of the State is in doubt.” But he predicted that it would take a generation to close all the social and economic gaps between Western and Oriental Israelis. “I know that to anyone who is in need at present, a generation sounds like a thousand years, but there are certain social processes that cannot be completed overnight,” Sapir told the audience of businessmen.

Absorption Minister Natan Peled and Louis A, Pincus, chairman of the Jewish Agency Executive, addressed a meeting of the Labor Party Secretariate here and both urged concerted campaigns of education and information to remove the feelings of hostility toward new immigrants. Pincus said the future of aliya depended on proper absorption and said that many new arrivals felt “out in the cold,”

This was confirmed by Mrs. Dessia Kamiaskaya, a recent arrival from the Soviet Union. She said that while there are smiling volunteers to greet the Immigrants at Lydda Airport, they are soon confronted by grim-faced officials and reams of red tape.

Dr. Nahum Goldmann, president of the World Jewish Congress, said today in Tel Aviv that he will soon meet with Soviet Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin in Washington to discuss Soviet Jewry.