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7 Av 5763 - August 5, 2003 | Mordecai Plaut, director Published Weekly
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NEWS
Immigrant Policy Eyed as German Community Swells
by Yated Ne'eman Staff

Germany was main refuge for Jews fleeing persecution last year. Germany took in 19,262 Jewish immigrants from the former Soviet Union in 2002, while Israel took in 18,878. Those numbers did not represent a surge in Jewish immigration to Germany but rather a drop in immigration to Israel.

As many as 100,000 Jews went to Germany since 1991, when Germany modified its refugee policies to welcome Jews fleeing antisemitism and economic chaos in the former Soviet Union. The newcomers have more than tripled Germany's Jewish population, which numbered some 30,000 before the current wave began.

German officials say the benefits offered to Jewish refugees under the 1991 Contingent Refugee Act, reflect its "historic responsibility" to make amends for its Nazi past.

In the years since the refugee program was adopted, Jewish immigration to Germany from the former Soviet Union has hovered consistently between 16,000 and 20,000 per year. During those same years, immigration to Israel from the former Soviet republics averaged about 61,000 per year.

America was the primary destination for Jews leaving the Soviet Union during the late 1970s and 1980s but received just 2,486 former Soviet Jewish refugees in 2002.

Last year the Central Council of Jews in Germany complained to the government that its rules for accepting immigrants were too relaxed. Only 70,000 of the newcomers have registered with a religious community in Germany, the council noted.

 

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