Living under the harshest and cruelest of conditions. his life is in jeopardy. Until the day he is allowed to walk away from that prison. leave the Soviet Union. and join his wife Avital in Israel. we must continue to call upon the Soviet Union to recognize the right to selfrespect. liberty. and expression in opposition to oppression. The arrest of Anatoly Shcharansky by the Soviet police in Moscow in 1977. on treason charges. drew much needed attention to the Soviet Unions blatant disregard for human rights. in particular to their inhuman treatment of Soviet Jews and of their desire to emigrate to Israel and the United States. The name Anatoly Shcharansky became synonymous with the conditions Jewish people must contend with in Russia. It became synonymous with all the other untold prisoners of conscience and refuseniks who are suffering in Soviet jails and who are refused emigration visas. and it became synonymous with the antiSemitism that the Soviet Union encourages. Anatoly Shcharansky is but one of many who needlessly suffer for crimes they have not committed. suffering because they wish to be accorded human rights embodied in constitutions and accords throughout the world. On March 15. we must remember that we must continue to work on behalf of the poor. the weak. and the helpless in the Soviet Union who cannot help themselves.
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emigrate emigration visas