15.04.2011                      11.Nisan, 5771

Dementi:

'Russian Jews were free to emigrate as they wished'

Ex-aliya representative Arnon Mantver denies claims made by retired Israeli official that Israel misled Soviet Jews into making aliya in 80s, 90s.

Israel did not dupe Soviet Jewry into immigrating to Israel during the late 1980s and 1990s, an official involved in organizing the great immigration of Soviet Jewry to Israel has insisted.
Arnon Mantver, who was the head of the Jewish Agency's aliya department in the 1990s, denied claims made by retired Israeli official Yaakov Kedmi that Israel misled Soviet Jews by making them believe they had no other choice if they wanted to leave the country….