Jewish Agency Treasurer Leon Dulzin told United Jewish Appeal leaders in Houston, Texas Sunday that the Agency cannot risk being unprepared for any unexpected liberalization in Soviet or Syrian emigration policies.
Speaking from Jerusalem in a live telephone hook-up to the UJA’s Southwest Region Leadership Institute, Dulzin said that although only 20,000 immigrants are expected in 1977-78, the Jewish Agency must be prepared with the necessary infrastructure and budget to support 30,000 to 35,000 immigrants should the current curbs on emigration from the Soviet Union and Syria be abandoned.
In any case, providing the new immigrants with housing, employment and support services requires advance planning and cannot be left until the immigrants arrive, Dulzin explained. “With immigration we always have to be prepared for more,” he said. “Immigration is an unknown…. We’re fighting to get our Soviet brothers out. Right now, they’re only letting out 1200 to 1300 a month.”
On Syrian Jews, Dulzin said: “Hopefully, if peace negotiations advance, this issue will be one of our major conditions… that they will be allowed to go… and, hopefully, they will come to Israel.”
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.
