ISRAEL: If I Forget Thee, O Jerusalem

In the Promised Land of Israel, the "ingathering" of the Jews has always been the great dream, and "emigration" a wicked word. Last week leaders of the Israel Parliament set up a special committee to investigate the "social, economic and psychological reasons" for a sudden, alarming rise in emigration. In the first three months of 1956, 1,971 people left Israel, more than twice as many as during the same period last year. More disturbing to Zionists than the rise itself is the fact that most of the emigrants were well-established veterans with skills the little country can ill afford to lose. Most were doctors, dentists, businessmen, hotelkeepers, who gave high taxes and a bleak economic future as chief reasons for leaving. Most favored destinations: the U.S., South America, West Germany.