An Odessa court recently sentenced Reiza Palatnik. a Soviet Jew who had sought to go to Israel. to 2 years in a prison camp for planning to disseminate antiSoviet material. Mrs. Palatnik was arrested on December 1 by agents of the State Security Committee after they had reached her apartment and seized what was described as "illegal literature." This literature included petitions by Soviet Jews seeking to emigrate and articles and poems by writers known for their liberal views. These and other oppressive steps have undoubtedly led at least 50 percent of the Jews now living in the Soviet Union to desire to emigrate to Israel if the opportunity should arise. Undoubtedly the adverse world reaction to these trials has led the Soviet authorities to ease some of the barriers to emigration that normally apply to Soviet citizens. It is now reported that about a thousand Jews a month have been leaving the country. some five times more than in previous years. Perhaps more than anything else. resurgent Soviet antiSemitism gives cause for concern in our pursuit of world peace.
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emigrate emigration