Word: russian
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Halfway House. To the dismay and embarrassment of Israeli officials, a growing number of Russian Jews are reluctant to go to Israel. While the vast majority of refugees in the early 1970s went to Israel, 59% of those who arrived at the halfway house for emigrants in Vienna last month expressed a desire to settle in the U.S. Now a long-simmering dispute between Israelis and some U.S. Jewish organizations over the destination of the refugees may jeopardize the future of Jewish emigration from the Soviet Union...
...officials, the refugees' lack of interest in becoming citizens of the Jewish state seems like rank ingratitude and an affront to Zionist faith. The refugees, however, regard their free choice of a country as a natural human right that had long been denied them in the U.S.S.R. Many Russian Jews have been put off by reports of difficult conditions for refugees in Israel. Others are plainly fearful of subjecting themselves and their children to the ever present danger of war with the Arab world. Asked one would-be U.S. immigrant from the Soviet Union: "After having suffered so much...
Unable to stem the tide of about 10,000 Russian Jews who have already emigrated to the U.S., the Israeli government has moved to force most refugees in the future to come to Israel. As the Israelis explain it, their basic problem is with the way station in Vienna, where Russian Jews arrive in the West by train. Nearly all emigrants must travel on Israeli visas to meet Soviet requirements for exit. Those wishing to proceed to the U.S., however, may stop in Vienna and request rerouting to the U.S. They apply to the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS...
...early Israeli attempt to stop the dropouts involved trying to establish an air link between Moscow and Tel Aviv. In that way, Russian Jews might be flown directly to Israel, thus eliminating the Vienna stopover and the refugees' option to go elsewhere. When the Soviets refused to sanction the new air route, Israeli officials tried to persuade HIAS and other Jewish agencies to cut off all aid to the dropouts in Vienna. If this happened, Russian Jews seeking to come to the U.S. would be discouraged from applying to leave. This would sharply reduce emigration from the U.S.S.R...
Israelis justify their drastic proposals by arguing that the "misuse" of Israeli visas by U.S.-bound refugees will give the Kremlin a pretext to cut back on Jewish emigration on grounds of fraud. There is some evidence, though, that the Russians are indifferent to the actual destinations of the emigrants, even though they are acting in contravention of the Helsinki accords by restricting exit permits arbitrarily. The Israelis have proposed that Russian Jews seeking to go to the U.S. should apply at the nearest American consulate in the U.S.S.R., but that is an unrealistic suggestion: this year fewer than...