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Golda Meir wanted to keep sick Poles from making aliyah

December 9, 2009

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- Golda Meir sought to prevent handicapped and sick Jews in Poland from immigrating to Israel when she served as foreign minister.

A letter written in 1958 by Meir to Israel's ambassador to Poland, Katriel Katz, was discovered recently by Professor Szymon Rudnicki, a University of Warsaw historian, the Israeli daily Ha'aretz reported.

The letter, marked top secret, read: "A proposal was raised in the coordination committee to inform the Polish government that we want to institute selection in aliyah, because we cannot continue accepting sick and handicapped people. Please give your opinion as to whether this can be explained to the Poles without hurting immigration." 

Some 40,000 Polish Jews immigrated to Israel between 1956 and 1958 following the lifting of restrictions on Jews leaving Poland that were imposed after World War II.
 

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