A total of 13,658 immigrants arrived in Israel during 1987, a 35 percent increase over 1986, when only 9,500 arrived, according to figures released Friday by the Absorption Ministry and the Central Bureau of Statistics.
Provisional figures released by the Central Bureau placed Israel’s population at 4,404,000 at the start of 1988, of which 3,611,000 or 82 percent is Jewish.
Absorption Minister Yaacov Tsur said the rise in immigration was attributable mainly to the increased number of Jews leaving the Soviet Union. Of 8,080 who emigrated last year, 2,180 came to Israel.
Tsur said the 74 percent “drop-out” rate in Vienna, the transit point for Jews leaving the USSR, is very worrisome and jeopardizes the continued exit of Jews.
He noted that among the Soviet Jews who came to Israel, 550 are university graduates, some 300 of them in the free and technical professions. Ninety of the immigrants are researchers in the social sciences, humanities, physical sciences, and medical and life sciences.
Immigration from South Africa, Argentina and Romania also increased by about 35 percent last year. But the numbers from South Africa were below expectations, Tsur said. As among Soviet Jews, most Jews who left South Africa went to countries other than Israel.
The Central Bureau reported that there are 615,000 Moslems in Israel, comprising 14 percent of the populations; about 102,000 Christians (2.3 percent); and 75,000 Druze and other faiths (1.7 percent).
The country’s overall population grew by 72,000 persons last year, a 1.7 percent increase, compared to an increase of 1.6 percent in 1986. The Jewish population increased by 50,000, a 1.4 percent rise, compared to 1.3 percent last year. There were 98,000 births in 1987, compared to 99,300 in the previous year.
The mortality rate was close to 30,000, about the same as last year.
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.
