But they do seem to be particularly victimized. Evidence abounds concerning what they have suffered. and testimony after testimony has added to the weight of that evidence over the years. In discussing Soviet Jewry I am forced to recall that we are speaking about Individual persons with proper names and private hopes. men. women and children who are denied a most basic freedom of choice. the right of emigration. Each uncertain and fearful individual who endeavors to leave the Soviet Union must face the possibility of harassment and discrimination. No individual knows at the moment when he applies for a visa whether he will be permitted to leave without trouble or whether he will be dismissed from his employment and subjected to as much as a decade of uncertainty regarding his future. Each is frightened of his present circumstances and obliged to wait and wait. For some reason. totalitarian societies seem to delight n the terrors of arbitrariness. A housewife may be told that she has state secrets while a physicist may be permitted to leave. One physician may be allowed to emigrate while another languishes without employment and without hope. All Soviet Jews must be prepared to confront the worst of fates before they exercise the most fundamental right of emigration. This right is guaranteed by the Helsinki accords. but the arbitrariness surrounding its use seems intended to spread terror. In a sense the refusenik Is Caught on the horns of a dilemma. He is unable to leave the Soviet Union freely. but he is also not permitted * to live freely as a Jew within Russia. Mr. Chairman. we could perhaps be less * shocked by this denial of emigration If Soviet Jewry at least enjoyed religious liberty within the Soviet Union. Instead. Jews face a society which denies them vital institutions of culture. a regime which denies Hebrew teachers the right to teach and penalizes Yiddish. recognized by the law as one of the state languages of the Soviet Union.
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emigrate emigration visa