EXODUS….

With anti-Semitism rising and economic prospects falling, Jewish emigration from Russia to Israel is on the rise for the first time since 1991. In all of 1998, about 14,000 Russian Jews emigrated to Israel, along with another 32,000 Jews from other former Soviet states. Israeli officials report Jewish emigration from Russia at 12,188 for the first six months of this year. Projections indicate Russian emigration to Israel could reach 30,000 in 1999, and emigration from the other former Soviet states could match that number. Since 1989, about 800,000 Jews have left the former Soviet Union for Israel, where a million people–about 20 percent of the population–now speak Russian.