Speech #920286918

Speaker. the sad plight of the Jews in the Soviet Union is by no means unknown to the Members of this body. or to the citizens of this country who can almost daily read of new harassment inflicted by the Soviet Government in relentless and vicious persecution of this religious and ethnic minority. We have watched in unbelieving horror as Russian Jews have been deprived of their jobs. their rightful property and .their freedom. as they have been separated from their families without any prior warning and thrown into prison to languish for weeks and more often for months. without any charges leveled against them. These are the tactics one can read about in the bizzare fiction of Kafka. yet they are also the macabre reality of life in the Soviet Union for those Jewish citizens who have expressed their desire to emigrate to Israel or some other country. Upon application for an exit visa. a Soviet Jew can expect -to be fired from his job. or at least dembted to menial work. especially if he is a professional. with an accompanying cut in wages. without regard for his education or professional skills. At best. he can expect to be evicted from his home and deprived of his personal property. and if he is lucky. avoid the labor camps or prison cell. As a secondclass citizen already. his request for permission to escape the source of his persecution singles him out as an object of even greater persecution and misery. and what is worse. more often than not. the visa is never granted. The tragic irony is that the Soviet Government will not let its Jewish citizens live in peace as productive citizens in their country. yet at the same time. it refuses to permit these tormented people to find peace in other countries which have indicated their willingness to accept them as immigrants. In previous months. international sentiment. especially strong pressure from the United States has succeeded in calling world attention to the plight of Soviet Jews and resulted in some temporary easing of the harrassment and an apparent liberalization of the emigration quotas. Now that the Soviets have been forced to yield to world pressure and permit some Jews to leave. they have decided to capitalize on the situation by putting an exhorbitant price on the head of each person who applies for emigration. based on the education and training of that individual. Thus. an engineer. a doctor. or a technical specialist must pay as much as $25.000 in addition to the standard cost for an exit visa to buy his way out of the country. while a teacher or lawyer would pay a lesser "ransom." Mr. Speaker. let us look at the realities of Soviet life for these people. and the limitations on their income. First of all. under the best of circumstaices. a Russian .citizen earns on the average the equivalent of only $2.000 a year. With the confiscation of property. and loss of job that inevitably follows application for an exit visa. the chances of most Soviet Jews for raising the required "ransom" are obviously minute. Andfor those few Jews who are fortunate to either have some personal means or can obtain assistance from friends in other countries. the resulting oppression of these peoples friends and family remaining behind Is intensified. Such treatment is clearly beyond the realm of human dignity and compassion and we must condemn the latest actions by the Soviet Government that require exhorbitant and unreasonable exit fees as one more intolerable and inhumane act in its efforts to dominate and destroy this innocent segment of its population and religious life generally.