With me I brought a petition. signed by a dozen Jewish mothers from Moscow and Leningrad. The petition was addressed to the leaders of the Soviet Government. In it. the mothers were requesting that their children be allowed to emigrate to Israel. In return. the mothers themselves would remain behind. as hostages in Russia. Any parent. any human being. can appreciate the tremendous sacrifice involved in this brave act. These 12 women stand prepared to send away their children. perhaps never to be seen again. so that these children. and their children after them will be able to live as free men and womenas Jews. In recent weeks. the Soviet Government has made some concessions. A handful of Jews. a few thousand. have been allowed to go. there are hundreds who have had applications to emigrate refused. There are still tens of thousands. perhaps even hundreds of thousands of Russian Jews who are being held captive in the Soviet Union. To make the plight of these prospective emigrants even more desperate. the Jew who makes application to leave Russia is immediately discriminated against. Often. he is fired from his job. or at least demoted. His children are not permitted to advance in the school system. his f amily is subject to taunts and harassment. Near the end of my journey. I met with one such family. They had applied for a visa to Israel more than a year ago. They have still heard nothing from the Soviet Government. The father was an electrical engineer. the mother. a physicist.
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emigrate visa emigrants