Speech #530132417

As President Reagan stated during a meeting with various Jewish leaders last year. "We will not. as Western democracies did four decades ago. turn a deaf ear to distant pleas for help." The issue of Soviet Jewry is of high priority to this Congress. and the administration. We have repeatedly stated that our concern for human rights in general. and Soviet Jewry in particular. is integral to our national interest and remains a major focus of our foreign policy. In the last few years. we have witnessed a constant decrease in the number of Jews permitted to emigrate from the Soviet Union. The fact that levels of emigration have plummeted and that the instances of harassment and denial of exit visas have increased clearly signify the intensification of Soviet repression and arbitrary treatment of Soviet Jews. Jews are still denied opportunities to gain higher education. They are prevented from securing good jobs. and they are thwarted from studying their own culture and the Hebrew language. Clearly. antiSemitism is rampant in the Soviet Union. The inhumane actions of Soviet authorities violate both the spirit and the letter of the Helsinki accords as well as other relevant international agreements to which the Soviet Union is a signatory. The issues of emigration and human rights should remain high on the agenda in all relevant forums. including the conference of security and cooperation in Europes followup meeting and the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. The rapidly deteriorating situation. however. indicates that new avenues must be explored to ameliorate the plight of Jews in the Soviet Union. We must encourage further participation of our Western allies and neutral and nonaligned nations in this effort.