http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/07/31/MNGKVE0NEO1.DTLNew rules for Jews immigrating to Germany
Angered by loss of newcomers, Israel reportedly sought change
Jay Bushinsky, Chronicle Foreign Service
Sunday, July 31, 2005
Wiesbaden, Germany -- The Israeli government, concerned about the declining number of Russian Jews emigrating to Israel, has persuaded Germany to institute unprecedented measures restricting the influx of Jews from the former Soviet Union, according to several Israeli officials.
Prompted by an intense behind-the-scenes lobbying campaign waged by Israel, new immigration rules would grant residence only to Jews from the former Soviet Union who are under 45, fluent in German and financially stable. The rules, announced late last month, do not include Jews from other non- Soviet countries or any other ethnic or religious group. They are expected to take effect at the beginning of next year.
"This is the most optimal response we could have expected from the Germans," said Shai Hermesh, treasurer of the Jewish Agency, the nongovernmental organization in Jerusalem that sponsors and facilitates immigration to Israel.
Israeli officials, who asked not to be named, said the government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was angered by the fact that nearly twice as many Soviet Jews had immigrated last year to Germany -- the country responsible for the Holocaust during the Nazi era -- than to the Jewish homeland. In 2004, more than 20,000 Soviet Jews arrived in Germany in contrast to only 11, 000 to Israel, Hermesh said.
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