Professional Re-training Centers Needed for New Immigrants

Gen. Uzi Narkiss, head of the Jewish Agency’s immigration department, stressed today the need for professional retraining centers to aid the absorption of new immigrants grants whose professional skills may not be of the kind needed in Israel. Narkiss spoke here at the weekly meeting of the Labor Zionist Movement secretariate. He said that unless the re-training centers are set up soon, difficulties will develop in finding employment for new immigrants not only from the Soviet Union but from Western countries,

Narkiss also emphasized the need to construct immigrant housing in outlying new development areas in order to get newcomers to settle in those areas. To promote the diversion of immigrants to the new development areas, the Jewish Agency has decided to construct absorption centers in developing townships which can later be converted to permanent housing, Narkiss said.

Referring to immigration from Russia, he noted that thousands of families have arrived here while only 30 families returned to Vienna and are seeking places other than Israel to live. He claimed that Soviet propaganda about Jewish returnees was intended for home consumption.