1970s Soviet Union aliyah

More than 150,000 Soviet Jews immigrated during this period, motivated variously by religious or ideological aspirations, economic opportunities, and a desire to escape anti-Semitic discrimination.

During this time, popular discrimination against Soviet Jewry increased, led by an anti-Semitic propaganda campaign in the state-controlled mass media.

By the end of the 1960s, Jewish cultural and religious life in the Soviet Union suffered from a strict policy of discrimination.

This measure was designed to combat the brain drain caused by the growing emigration of Soviet Jews and other members of the intelligentsia to the West.

However, the Jackson-Vanik Amendment passed by US Congress in 1974, along with additional US congressional funding for Soviet Jewish resettlement, and "reports of work and housing difficulties" in Israel due to the 1973 Yom Kippur War, created a situation for this dropout rate to rise, forcing 51,000 Soviet Jews from 1975 - 1980 to migrate to the US and join the 1.5 million Jews who fled the Russian Empire prior to World War I.

In addition to contributing to the country's economic development, Soviet immigration was also seen as a counterweight to the high fertility rate among Israeli-Arabs.

According to Israeli Immigrant Absorption Minister Yaakov Zur, "over half of Soviet Jewish dropouts who immigrated to the United States assimilated and ceased to live as Jews within a short period of time…it could jeopardize the whole program if Jews supposedly going to Israel all wind up in Brooklyn and Los Angeles.