Speech #930008425

Restrictions have been placed upon the teaching of Hebrew in private Jewish schools. Jews who protested these Government actions have been subject to interrogation and loss of employment. Some have become. along with their nonJewish "activist" counterparts. "nonpersons." Perhaps in an attempt to defuse the pressures of world opinion. in recent weeks the Government of the Soviet Union appears to have modified the visa fee schedule for certain circumstances. Provisions have been made to waive the education tax for pensioners and invalids who wanted to emigrate and to reduce the taxes for others on a sliding scale. depending on the number of years they had worked subsequent to their education. According to Soviet sources. these provisions could result in a reduction of up to 75 percent of the tax amount. In addition to these new provisions. which are obviously slanted against more educated Jews. the capricious and arbitrary administration of the education tax requirement has had the result of limiting the Jewish emigration to primarily working class people. clerical workers. those in service trades. and the elderly. Relatively few of the more educated Jews have been able to leaveespecially those who are scientists or engineers. Not that these more educated Jews do not want to leave. in fact. Israeli authorities have estimated that 80.000 new invitations for emigration have gone out to Soviet families. and that at least one person in onethird of these families has had a university education. The education tax has been combined with a seemingly irrational administration to make the emigration process close to impossible. particularly for educated Jews. Even before the imposition of the education tax. the requirements for emigration were so demanding as to be Kafkaesque. The first step in emigration is to receive an invitation from a blood relative residing in the country of destination. This step is often complicated by delays and nondeliveries in the postal system. Next. a prospective emigrant must obtain the consent of his immediate family in the Soviet Union. Thus one objecting member of a family can effectively prevent another member from emigrating. The prospective emigrant is required by law to obtain a character reference from his employer. Requesting such a reference often brings immediate dismissal from work and social ostracism. In fact. the applicant can be imprisoned if he remains unemployed and falls into the category of a social parasite. An example of this situationwhich gives the lie to the Soviet claim that an education tax is necessary to prevent a brain drainis the case of Prof. Benjamin Levich. a leading electrochemical scientist and a member of the prestigious Soviet Academy of the Sciences. As a result of his protests against the emigration policy. and his own efforts to emigrate. he has lost his job and has been denied scientific privileges. The Government of the Soviet Union has raised a number of defenses for the education tax. It is claimed that people have an obligation to reimburse the state for the costs of their education. This argument. which presumes free education. neglects the fact that education has not always been free under the Soviet system and was in fact quite costly during the Stalin era. No allowance is made for those who might have paid for their education. What is more. this argument is made inconsistent by the fact that the education tax is required only for those wishing to emigrate to nonCommunist countries. In addition. Soviet law already requires that every Soviet citizen who has received a higher education is obliged to spend 3 years in government service. The Soviet Union has also said that the education tax is justifiable on the grounds of national security. The fact of the matter Is that very few potential emigrants could be classified as being involved in work actually involving national securityand this small number hardly justifies the imposition of a general tax. The Soviet Government also purports to fear a brain drain. but as has been demonstrated in innumerable cases. they inflict a brain drain upon themselvesby depriving Jewish scientists and intellectuals the right to work if they attempt to emigrateeven if they do not succeed. The Soviet Union also claims that other countries have similar exit fees and imply that such a tax is an accepted international practice. In fact. the Soviet Unions tax is many thousands of dollars greater than even the worst of the few other countries that have exit fees that could be greater than nominal.