Is it any wonder that as many as 500.000 Soviet Jews have indicated their desire to leave the Soviet Union? If anything is symptomatic of a failure of a system to safeguard the rights and guarantee the freedom of its people. it is certainly these vast numbers of faithful who want nothing more than to rejoin families. worship as they choose and otherwise live under a system which respects their humanity. The Soviets would have us believe that the fact that Jewish emigration has dropped from 51.320 in 1979 to 1.315 in 1983 is simply a reflection of the numbers of Jews who want to leave. Nothing could be further from the truth. These numbers are but some of the signs of changing Soviet attitudes. AntiSemitic propaganda. active discrimination in education. cultural repression and harsh prison sentences for refuseniks are some additional telltale signs that those drastically reduced emigration figures reflect a policy of strangulation. The conclusion that we can draw from the mere 50 Jews allowed to leave the Soviet Union this past March. and the worsening atmosphere of antiSemitism. is that the Soviet leadership is devoid of any semblance of compassion or humanity. What is observed is a personality that is cold. aloof. and insensitive to the most basic of human needs and aspirations.
Identified stereotypes
Generalization about Soviet attitudes towards Jewish people.