79 Soviet Jews Allowed to Emigrate in May
The Soviet Union allowed 79 Jews to emigrate in May, the second consecutive month in which the number increased, the agency helping them resettle said Thursday.
Twenty of them went to Israel, and the rest were bound for other countries, said Nuno Decampos, spokesman for the Intergovernmental Committee for Migration.
The number of Jewish emigrants was 72 in April and 53 in March, which was an eight-month low.
Last year, 1,140 Soviet Jews were allowed to emigrate, up from a record low of 904 in 1984. The program peaked in 1979 when 51,330 Jews left the Soviet Union.
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