 The Soviet Union was generally anti-Semitic; Zionist activities inside its borders were considered treason that could lead to execution, and, after 1967, Israel was considered an enemy state. It was not until Perestroika that Jewish activists were given freedom to operate. The emigration that took place from 1989 to 1993 is described as a "panic migration", due to the socio-economic crisis in the Soviet states, rather than a migration of "born-again" Jews. Many of them did not have any relation to Judaism or Zionism in their former place of residence. Most immigrants of this period came from Russia and Ukraine, and to a lesser extent from Belarus and Central Asia.
