Tag #142879 - Interview #78247 (Adolf Landsman)

In 1970, when Brezhnev [58] was the head of the government [First Secretary of the Communist Party], mass immigration of Jews to Israel started. On one hand, immigration of certain Jews wasn't officially approved, and on the other, anti-Semitism still remained in the country. It was difficult for Jews to get a job or enter an institution of higher education. Maybe they thought the harder anti-Semitism was the more Jews would leave the country. I can't say it for sure. I, in my turn, wished the best to those who were departing, and tried to assist them in any way I could. Though there were some Jews who were ill-disposed towards the Jews who were leaving the country. Some of my acquaintances used to say that those Jews who left the country for permanent abode, betrayed their real motherland, and others said that because of mass immigration it would be harder for the remaining Jews to live in the country and they would be treated even worse.