The Jewish Agency reported yesterday that only 274 of more than 60,000 Jewish immigrants who arrived recently from the Soviet Union, have left Israel. The figure was given by Yehuda Dominits, deputy director of the Jewish Agency’s aliya department to correct what he called contradictory reports.
Dominits just returned from Rome where most of the departed immigrants presently live. He said that special emissaries have been sent to Rome by Soviet emigre groups in Israel to determine why their former countrymen left.
The Jewish Agency also announced that it has just ended its first six-week course for future emissaries who will leave Israel shortly to assist Jews in various countries who are planning to immigrate to Israel. The Agency’s department of immigration and absorption currently has 137 emissaries on two and three year missions abroad. The latest group includes lawyers, journalists and teachers.
Their six weeks of preparation included courses in interviewing immigrants, meetings with recently arrived immigrants, studies of absorption methods, publicity and information techniques. They also studied Israel’s political problems and took courses in public speaking.
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