Mr. President. I again call uttention to the plight of Soviet Jews who wish to emigrate to Israel. Recently. the Commission on Soviet Jewry of the Community Relations Committee. Jewish Federation Council of Greater Los Angeles. received a letter addressed to the Senate from a number of JewishSoviet activists in Leningrad. It describes the many bureaucratic obstacles which face Jews who wish to emigrate and the capricious manner in which such requests are either refused or granted. While efforts by many concerned people in the United States to persuade the Soviet Government to relax its emigration policies have been partially successful. this document makes it clear that the methods currently used to prevent Soviet Jews from emigrating are antithetical to basic concepts of freedom and repugnant to human dignity. Certainly. it is obvious that the future of world peace depends on cooperation between our Nation and the Soviet Union. The policy of detente has been beneficial to both sides. and it is regrettable that the Soviet Trade Agreement. which promised to do so much for peace. has failed. Yet. friendship between our two countries should not be bought at the cost of the freedom of Soviet Jews or any other people. The men and women who signed this letter did so. in spite of a risk to themselves. in the hopes that publicity about the plight of their people and the resulting world opinion could secure for Soviet Jews what their own efforts had failed to do: the fundamental right to emigrate to their religious homeland. Mr. President. in order that their story may be heard in full and that it might receive the public attention they sought.
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