Mr. Speaker. the spirit of Helsinki is nothing more than an unfulfilled dream for Col. Wulf Vilensky and his wife Sonya. who have been waiting for exit visas to join their family in Israel for 5 years. Each year it becomes more difficult to believe that the dream might come true as each new application for permission to leave the Soviet Union is denied. Each year they grow older without the pleasures of having their children and grandchildren with them. virtually imprisoned in Vilnius. Lithuania. itself a captive nation of the Soviet Union. As the Soviets clamp down on Jewish emigration and step up the repression of Jewish and Christian dissidents alike. we prepare to meet them in Madrid in November for a review of the Helsinki agreement which they have so blatantly violated. At that meeting we must place a high priority on the discussion of individual human rights cases. forcing Soviet representatives to justify their claim of compliance with the agreement in the face of so many divided families and repressed individuals. Speaking in vague generalities about policy will leave us with just thatvague generalities about strides taken to reunite families and allow freer emigration. while the real story reads much more grim. Emigration figures for April 1980 are half of what they were 1 year ago. and according to a new rule. a Jew can only apply for emigration if he has parents. children. brothers or sisters in Israel. depriving the majority of Soviet Jews of the eligibility to emigrate. This information was recently presented to the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe through the testimony of Lev Ulanovsky. a Soviet Jew who was fortunate enough to be given permission to emigrate to Israel less than a year ago. In his testimony. Lev eloquently describes the life of a Jew in the Soviet Union. how a Jew is demeaned by sanctioned antiSemitism from his earliest days of childhood. considered the worst kind of traitor by virtue of his heritage and thus fair game for the basest insults and contemptible treatment.
Identified stereotypes
Jews are considered the worst kind of traitor by virtue of their heritage and thus fair game for the basest insults and contemptible treatment.