Speech #920206656

Our resolution today demonstrates unequivocally that Soviet attempts at cultural genocide of Jews will not escape our condemnation. even in the thick vapors of a thawing cold war. In the months since I introduced a resolution on urging the President to speak out on behalf of Soviet Jews. their situation has changed somewhat. Emigration has increased. and thousands of Jews deluge government offices with visa applications. Only a small proportion are lucky enough to have their requests granted. Some members of our State Department urged that Congress lower the tone of its concern. in light of some easing of restrictions. However. while more Jews have been able to escape the tyranny of the Soviet Government and settle in Israel. the KGB has adopted a vigorous policy of severe repression of activists who agitate for visas and Jewish rights after their applications have been rejected. In the past. the Moscow KGB has led Russian secret police in persecuting Jews with its example of confinement to mental institutions. jail sentences. and unexplained arrests. But as of last week. the Leningrad KGB has decided not only to emulate the dastardly record of its Moscow counterpart but to surpass it as well. Sergei Gurevitz. a Jewish physicist who was fired from his teaching position when he applied for a visa to Israel and then threatened with institutionalization when he walked in the street with a yarmulke. a skull cap. has been informed that he will either take a job in a concrete factory or spend a year in Jail for parasitism. Friends who spoke to him on Saturday found him ready to accept any menial job in the hope that his visa might come through. However. he told his callers that two unnamed friends would be tried on charges of parasitism now being trumped up by the Leningrad KGB and will be sentenced to spend a year in labor camps. These new incidents of repression herald an intensifying of persecution and a worsening of the situation of Jews. although a fortunate minority are now able to escape.