Israel is now issuing invitations that Soviet Jews need to apply for exit visas with the requirement that they go directly to Israel via Romania. The move is an effort by Israel to stop most Soviet emigrants from going to other countries, including the United States.
But an Israeli Embassy source, who confirmed Friday that the new invitations have been sent out for the last month, stressed that for now, there is no change in how Soviet Jews who receive exit visas leave the USSR.
Emigrants can go to Bucharest, as a small number have done for the last six to eight months, or to Vienna, as most emigrants do, and then on to either Israel or another country.
If the Israeli requirement were to become mandatory, those who receive invitations would not receive their exit visas until they reached Bucharest and would thus have no choice but to go on to Israel.
Karl Zukerman, executive vice president of HIAS, suggested that this mandatory policy would not go into effect until Israel is allowed to open a mission or consulate in the Soviet Union.
Negotiations have been going on for some time between Israel and the Soviet Union, which broke diplomatic relations after the 1967 Six Day War.
The Dutch Embassy in Moscow continues to handle the invitations from Israel, and no changes have been made despite the new wording, according to Jerry Goodman, executive director of the National Conference on Soviet Jewry.
WON’T PREVENT REUNIFICATION
Both Goodman and the Israeli Embassy source said the new requirement would not prevent Soviet Jews who have relatives in the United States, Britain, Canada or other countries from seeking to join them. Since last July, the Soviets have permitted persons with relatives in the United States and other countries to receive invitations from them, and not just from Israel, as was the previous practice.
Goodman noted that for the past year-and-a-half, the National Conference has advocated a “two-track” approach whereby Soviet Jews who want to go Israel can do so directly, while those who want to go to the United States or another western country can also go there directly without the subterfuge of asking for a visa to Israel. Morris Abram, chairman of the National Conference, and Edgar Bronfman, president of the World Jewish Congress, raised the Romanian route directly with Soviet officials when they were in Moscow in March 1987.
“Israel is putting in place what we accepted in principle a year-and-a-half ago,” Goodman said. “If you come out on an Israeli invitation, you pick up your visa in Bucharest.”
Goodman added that “everyone supports the two tracks, as long as we make certain that those Jews who wish to come to America will not be hurt or prejudiced by it.”
But the Union of Councils for Soviet Jews Charged the new policy will do exactly that. The policy threatens Soviet Jews “by violating their Helsinki-guaranteed freedom of choice to emigrate directly to any country of their choice that will accept them,” the group said.
Pamela Cohen, president of the union, and Micah Naftalin, its national director, have been meeting with U.S. and Israeli officials, and prominent Jewish leaders to discuss a response.
“We have found almost universal accord in the need to respect the Israeli government’s legitimate concern for the dignity of its visas, while assuring that Soviet Jews retain their internationally guaranteed freedom of choice,” Cohen said.
COULD REDUCE EMIGRATION LEVELS
Naftalin suggested the new policy could result in making most of the 400,000 Soviet Jews who want to emigrate “more vulnerable,” and reduce the present emigration levels.
“Realistically, Israel is a far weaker advocate than the United States, and the Soviet Union may become increasingly influenced by its client states in the Middle East to set even lower quotas of Jewish emigration than at present,” Naftalin said.
Israel has long sought to find a way to stop the “dropout” rate among Soviet Jews who leave the USSR with visas to Israel, and then go to the United States or some other country. Estimates of those carrying Israeli visas who travel instead to another country range as high as 80 percent.
During a visit to Washington last year, Premier Yitzhak Shamir asked the United States to stop giving Soviet Jews refugee status, allowing them to come to the United States. But the Reagan administration rejected the request, arguing that it believed in freedom of choice.
Shamir argued that it was an insult to Israel to call the Jewish emigrants refugees, since they automatically had Israeli citizenship once they left the USSR.
He also said that Soviet Jews, once in Israel, were free to immigrate to the United States. But the Union of Councils noted Friday that they would then no longer be refugees and have to apply for emigration on the same basis as do other Israelis.
While the union expressed its opposition to the new Israeli initiative, out of fear of what would happen to Soviet Jews who want to join their relatives in the United States, this was no less a concern for HIAS and the National Conference. All three groups stressed the need to press the Soviet Union to honor the invitations from the United States.
Zukerman said that HIAS has been expanding its program of encouraging letters of invitation from the United States. He said he feels as “the word gets around, many more American letters” will be sent.
He said HIAS was “optimistic” that a “very neat and appropriate system” will be put into effect, “but we are not taking it for granted.”
Goodman said that once the two-track system of letters from Israel and the United States is firmly established, the American Jewish community will have to “advocate more strongly for the right” of Soviets Jews to immigrate directly to the United States as well as 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.
