The Australian Jewish News (Melbourne) (July 4, 1980)
Jerusalem, (JCNS): Dr. Moses Rosen, the Chief Rabbi of Romania, is confident that nearly 1,000 Romanian Jews will again be allowed to emigrate to Israel during 1980. A total of 988 settled in Israel from Romania last year.
Occasionally criticised by Israeli immigration officials for what they regard as his acquiescence in a ‘limited quota system’ in the number of Romanian Jews allowed to emigrate to Israel, Dr. Rosen justified his attitude at a Tel Aviv press conference.
‘‘We are fully part of the Jewish people and suffer no complexes about our loyalty both to Romania and the Jewish people,” he told the journalists. Dr. Rosen said: “We have managed not to come into conflict with the (Romanian) authorities over aliya (emigration) and the result is that olim (emigrants) fly in direct from Bucharest to Lod.
“We have succeeded both in enabling Jews to come to Israel, while yet preserving a Jewish presence in a Communist country.”
The Chief Rabbi said the size of his community was dwindling as the result of emigration. Some 350,000 Jews of Romanian origin have now settled in Israel to leave an estimated total of fewer than 35,000 in Romania.
But, he emphasised that the Jews who remained were organised in 68 active communities and more than half the 120 synagogues in the country functioned fully and held daily services.