Many universities have closed their doors to Jews. In the past 6 months the number of Jews allowed to leave has fallen by 50 percent. Furthermore. active efforts are being made by Soviet authorities to prevent the application of Jews for exit visas. OVIR offices across the country have been closed down. These practices have led to the creation of a new. undocumented class of refusniks. those refused permission to apply. Yet. despite all these obstacles. the actual number of applicants continues to rise dramatically. a fact which merely serves to illustrate the utter hopelessness of many Soviet Jews concerning their situation in that country. The hijackattempt in July 1970 constituted a desperate attempt to bring attention to the plight of Soviet Jewry. The act was an appeal to the international community to break its silence and to vocally and to actively support Soviet Jews in their struggle for the universally recognized right to freedom of emigration. As a signatory of both the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Helsinki Accords. the Soviet Union has formally recognized the universal right to emigration. On this anniversary of the first Leningrad trials. it is our responsibility to reaffirm our commitment to the sentiments expressed in those documents. The Leningrad 12 spoke to the free world from a Soviet court 10 years ago.
Keywords matched
undocumented emigration visas