President. I have read with grave concern recent news reports from the Soviet Union that security police have arrested at least 50 Soviet Jews in preparation for President Nixons visit. The Soviet leaders apparently believe that by making these arrests and increasing their harassment of individuals they will be able to prevent demonstrations and appeals to the President by their Jewish citizens who want to emigrate. In addition. security police have arrested and harassed several Jewish scientists. who have been planning a "scientific seminar" scheduled to be held in Moscow with foreign scientists. Including several Nobel Prize winners. beginning July 1. The purpose of the "seminar" is to help Soviet scientists. who have been fired from their jobs because they applied to emigrate. remain current with scientific knowledge. The Soviet leaders have made a serious miscalculation. They may succeed in preventing President Nixon and members of his party from seeing any demonstrations. but. in doing so. they have drawn world attention to the desperate plight of Soviet Jews. They have also cast a shadow over the Presidents visit. The recent arrests and harassment of Soviet Jews have only intensified the commitment of the American people to help those tens of thousands of human beings who ask only the right to emigrate to the country of their choicea fundamental human right affirmed more than 25 years ago by the United Nations in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. President Nixon in regrettable remarks at Annapolis may have encouraged Soviet leaders to conclude that the plight of Soviet Jewry is not a concern of the United States. If so. they are wrong.
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emigrate