The World - News from Jan. 12, 1989

Up to 10,000 Soviet Jews were allowed to visit relatives in Israel last year in a wave inspired by Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev’s policy of glasnost , or openness, a Jewish representative said in Geneva. Arrivals began last spring and “in 1988, we figure there were between 8,000 and 10,000 who visited,” said Rabbi Richard Hirsch, executive director of the World Union for Progressive Judaism, a private lobby. He said even more Soviet Jews could visit this year. “We consider this a harbinger of better times,” said Hirsch, who is in Geneva to meet with Swiss Jewish leaders. The Soviets, many of whom travel on plane tickets paid for by relatives in Israel, have tourist visas and stay one to three months, he said.