The Jewish Agency executive today named a special sub-committee to prepare a detailed plan on centralizing in one office all matters of immigration and absorption of immigrants from Western countries. The step was taken following a report to the plenary meeting of the executive that an estimated 1,000 American Jews will settle in Israel this year, compared with 650 such immigrants last year.
S. Z. Shragai, head of the Jewish Agency immigration department, also reported that in the first three months of this year, 200 American Jews settled in Israel compared with 130 in the same period in 1959. The meeting also was told that 18 percent of all American Jewish youth who visit Israel for study courses or seminars ultimately return for permanent settlement.
Mr. Shragai also reported on the work of a joint Jewish Agency-Israel Government committee, headed by Giora Josephthal, the Israel Minister of Labor, which deals with immigration from the United States and Canada. This committee hopes to bring hundreds of urgently needed American and Canadian professionals to Israel. Nearly 5,000 such professionals are registered with the Jewish Agency in New York as interested in the possibility of continuing their careers in Israel, the plenum was told.
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