
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, April 12, 1991                   TAG: 9104120143
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: TEL AVIV, ISRAEL                                LENGTH: Short

SECRET EXODUS OVER FOR JEWS FROM ALBANIA

The last Jewish immigrants from Albania landed in Israel on Thursday, closing a clandestine saga that wrote one more footnote to the collapse of Europe's Communist dictatorships.

Reports of Albanians immigrating to Israel have filtered out in recent months, but their movement here en masse was kept secret.

The last 16 men, women and children stepped off an El Al airliner as Israel was observing Holocaust Day, remembering six million Jews murdered by the Nazis.

In all, 298 Albanians have come since the regime in Tirana began liberalizing in December, according to the quasi-governmental Jewish Agency, which brought them here. It said another 30 joined relatives in the United States.

Israeli news reports said the immigrants were flown to Israel from Italy and Greece. But officials declined comment, saying the countries that helped sought anonymity. - Associated Press

by CNB