Speech #850273436

R. are not permitted to inaintain a central representative body. either elected or appointed. cultural institutions. schools. newspapers. per.odicals. publishing housesin brief. none of the facilities accorded to all other national groups. Though there are iynagogues in some of the main cities--mostly rundown. too few in number. too small in size to accommodate all the worshipers on high holidaysthe Jews. unlike other faiths (the Greek Orthodox and the Moslem community. ant. so forth) are not permitted to establish a countrywide central religious association to look after their religious needs. maintain regular connections with Jewish religious institutions and houses of learning in other countries. and (rganize pilgrimages to the Holy Land. a restriction similarly applied to Soviet Moslems only a few of whom are a*.lowed to visit the holy cities of Mecca and Medina. Under the circumstances of their treatment in the Soviet Union. the desire of Soviet Jews to emigrate to Israel. where they could live in freedom. be permitted to worship their God and to bring up their children in their proud traditions. and granted opportunities to exercise their individual talents and use their natural endowment in full measure. is very understandable. However. no Soviet Jew is permitted to leave the Soviet Union and rasettle in Israel. except. occasionally. lnome aged and physically handicapped people. obviously welfare cases. whom Israel welcomes. but who cannot be re larded as symptomatic of a Soviet desire to permit Jewish emigration. Soviet representatives. in interviews with foreign guests. produce the hackneyed argumtnt that "Soviet Jews themselves do not want to go to Israel." They wish the Free World to believe that Soviet Jews. denied their rights as a group. discriminated against individually. are nonetheless inclined to obliterate from their hands and conscience a 2.000yearold tradition of attachment to their history and to the Holy Land and settle for the status of secondclass citizens in the U. S.