President. recently. Congress agreed to provide Israel with $400 million in housing loan guarantees for the purpose of helping it build decent. inexpensive homes for the massive number of Soviet Jews who are expected to arrive there over the next several years. There was a clear recognition by legislators that after years of calling upon the Soviet Union to allow Its citizensboth Jewish and nonJewishto emigrate. we had an obligation to help Israel absorb the immigrants who chose to go there. Israel urgently needs additional housing to meet the demands that this huge influx of new citizens has placed upon its limited resources. The immigrants are currently arriving at the rate of about 10.000 per month and the available stock of empty apartments in Israel is nearly exhausted. As many as a million Soviet Jews are expected by 1995. if the doors stay open and high rates of immigration continue as expected. The Soviet Jews are jumping at their newfound opportunity to leave the U.S.S.R.. where the combination of a sinking economy and rising antiSemitism is giving them visceral fears about the future. For almost a year. it has been apparent that Israel would need to prepare for the arrival of massive numbers of Soviet Jews.
Keywords matched
emigrate immigration immigrants