Soviet Jews

With the hoisting of the blue and white Star of David in the frigid Russian wind, Israeli diplomats officially opened their own consulate in the Soviet capital Thursday and announced themselves ready to handle the monumental numbers of Jews leaving for their biblical homeland.

Soviet Jews sang Hebrew folk songs and danced in celebration today as Israel reopened its consulate in Moscow after a 23-year rupture in diplomatic relations. The newly appointed consul general, Aryeh Levin, said the consulate's reopening reflects the growing warmth in Soviet-Israeli relations and is a major step toward restoring full diplomatic ties, which the Soviet Union cut after the 1967 Arab-Israeli War.

Soviet Jews, many fearing political instability at home, poured into Israel today with one plane landing every 30 minutes in a country ill-prepared to find them homes and work. Jewish Agency Chairman Simcha Dinitz said 5,000 Jews arrived in 24 hours this week, making December a record month for immigration since the Jewish state was founded 42 years ago. Up to 35,000 Soviet Jews arrived this month, bringing the total for 1990 to more than 180,000, Dinitz told a news conference.

It's a long way from Birobidjian to Jerusalem, a journey of 10,000 miles and one that crosses between rival solutions to what was once delicately called the Jewish Problem. Birobidjian is known for its voracious mosquitoes and an attempt by dictator Josef Stalin to design a national home for Jews in the Soviet Union. By all accounts, the mosquitoes remain as hungry as ever, but Birobidjian's Jewish inhabitants, driven by fear of ethnic conflict, have begun to leave for Israel.

Alexei F. Chistyakov, Moscow's first consul in Israel since 1967, presented his credentials in Jerusalem, underscoring growing warmth between the Jewish state and the Soviet Union at a time when Soviet Jews are emigrating to Israel in record numbers. In Moscow, Arieh Levine presented his credentials to become Israel's consul to the Soviet Union.

Israel in 1990 received the highest number of immigrants in one year since 1949 and expects new records to be set in 1991, immigration officials said Monday. Approximately 187,000 immigrants, the majority of them Soviet Jews, have arrived in Israel since January, 1990, immigration officials said. Their number is expected to reach 200,000 by Dec. 31, the highest number since 1949--a year after independence--when 239,964 Jews arrived in Israel in a one-year period, officials said.

Israel announced Friday that it is using every available plane and even allowing flights on the Jewish Sabbath to bring in a new wave of Soviet Jews fearing political turmoil in their homeland. The daily rate of Soviet Jewish immigration to Israel--already at its highest level in decades--has nearly doubled in the last three days, from about 800 to more than 1,500, officials said. Between Thursday and Sunday, they expect arrivals to total about 6,000.

Leaders of Soviet Jewish organizations from the United States, Israel and the Soviet Union met over the weekend at the World Conference of Soviet Jewish Solidarity. In sessions held at Plummer Park, delegates from various cities in the United States formed a national group to be known as the American Union of Russian Jewish Organizations and Communities that they hope will help them influence the decision-making process on immigration and resettlement issues.

Germany proposed Friday to set a tight quota on the immigration of Soviet Jews, accepting as few as 1,000 a year despite tens of thousands of applications. According to spokesmen, the interior ministers of the 16 German states, meeting in Dresden, were nearly unanimous in support of the limit.

A great Jewish leader was murdered. Meir Kahane was a man who was not afraid of the truth, unlike most of our Jewish leaders today. My recollections of him go back to childhood and teen-age years in the Soviet Union. We, the Soviet Jews, persecuted, hounded and discriminated against, had heard scant and hushed-up stories about a brave rabbi, who stood up and fought for our liberation, who had no fear of the KGB, who did not play "diplomatic" games. The Soviets hated and feared him. Kahane was a realist, never a coward, and he was completely devoid of the ghetto mentality, a prevalent trait of American Jewish leaders.