Speech #920131487

In some instances. the Soviet Government goes beyond the principle of the reunion of families and endorses the principle of the reunion of entire ethnic groups. Spaniards. RussoPoles. and Greeks have been allowed to emigrate. It is regrettable. however. to note that while the Soviet Government has been sympathetically disposed to the principle of reunion of families and to some ethnic groups. it has made an exception in the case of Soviet Jews. This inconsistency between general policy and their position with regard to Soviet Jews is certainly a cause for embarrassment to the Soviet Union. We have a situation. then. in which the Soviet Union has obligated itself in a variety of ways to international standards which require it to give effect to the right to leave and return. and. it has accorded recognition to the humanitarian principle of reunion of families and even ethnic groups. Hence. it appears that those who seek to emigrate to Israel and elsewhere are merely seeking implementation of this legal and moral right. It has always struck one as the height of hypocrisy for the Soviet Union to profess. before the world. adherence to the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights and then systematically to harass and persecute Jewish minorities within the Soviet Union and to officially announce on October 6 that emigration is a privilege. a decision to be made by the state. not a right of the individual. This pronouncement reemphasized how far the Soviet Union has progressed in terms of spiritual and human pir)gress. As of last week. the flow of Jews from Russia to Israel. which was almost nonexistent. has now become steady. I feel that the moral outcry raised by those of us around the world who cherish freedom has been probably the greatest contributing factor to this new flow of Jewish emigrants from Russia. However. we must not forget that many of these new arrivals have paid for their Soviet exit permit dearly. with several years of persistent effort. short jail terms and forfeiture of much of their worldly goods. Many of the emigrants in absorption centers in Israel live alongside American families who have brought with them. taxfree. virtually all the material comforts of home. The difference in the respective situation of the new emigrants is striking. Furthermore. the Russian Jewsunlike their western counterpartsknow that they have made a final break and cannot return if they do not like Israel. Not unlike other victims of the repressive Soviet policy is Mrs. Rita Gluzman. who testified today before the Europe Subcommittee of Foreign Affairs. A former citizen of the Soviet Ukraine. she emigrated to Israel in February Before that time. and since. she made repeated but unsuccessful efforts to win Russian permission for her husband. Yakov Qluzman. to emigrate from Russia to join her. and their infant son he has never seen. in Israel. Mrs. Gluzman first brought her tragic problem to my attention during a trip I made to Israel late this past summer. Since September 1969. more than 2 years ago. she and her husband have sought. to no avail. an exit visa for Mr. Gluzman. At the beginning of those efforts. Soviet authorities hinted to her that. if she left Russia with her parents and sister. it would be easier for her husband to receive an emigration permit. At the time she left the Soviet Union with her family. she was with child. On October 10. 1970. she gave birth in Tel Aviv to a son.