New peaks in the flow of East European Jews to Israel were reported today as two Israel ships, the Artza and the Herzl, sailed from Naples with Rumanian and Polish Jews for Haifa while two more ships chartered by the Jewish Agency were to sail from Italy tomorrow.
Jewish Agency offices indicated here today that they expect the quickened tempo of the migration movement to continue and began to make preparations to handle an inflow here of several hundred daily.
A special train carrying 313 Rumanian Jews and 70 Jews from Poland left Vienna last night. Other Rumanian Jews left this morning for Israel on two El Al planes. Another 200 will be moved by air from Vienna tomorrow.
In recent days each train arriving here from Rumania has brought large groups of Jews. The Jews from Poland are being sent off the same day by the Jewish Agency from Vienna to Italy where they board ship for Haifa. Jews from Rumania remain here for a day.
The emigrants are escorted from Vienna to Naples by special Jewish Agency escorts. The Austrian authorities cooperate fully with the Jewish Agency officials and permit the stay over of the Rumanian emigrants although their transit visas are usually good only for a 24 to 48 hour period. Austrian policemen are assigned to each train carrying Jewish emigrants and escort them to the Italian frontier to facilitate their journey.
Jewish Agency officials here tended to disbelieve reports published abroad that Rumanian non-Jews, posing as Jews, had left Rumania in the Jerusalem transports. They said that no non-Jews had arrived here so far among the emigrants. There have been a few cases of inter-married couples but their number is trivial because inter-marriage is rare among Rumanian Jews. It was reported here that the Rumanian authorities have made difficulties for such couples, particularly when they have children whom the Rumanian officials considered non-Jewish. Officials involved in handling the migration through Vienna expressed belief today that action by Rumanian officials at the Rumanian-Hungarian border in removing some emigrants from the Vienna-bound trains, as arrivals reported here yesterday, involved nothing more serious than technical formalities.
They said these cases would probably be straightened out in a day or two and the emigrants who were detained would be released to rejoin their families.
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.
