Speech #970230514

Tatyanas son Lev. in Israel. An electronic engineer. Tatyana has been unemployed since she applied to emigrate in December 1980. Suffering from chronic ulcers of both legs. her 81yearold mother requires constant care and lives with Tatyana. They have no more living relatives in the U.S.S.R. but were refused permission for lack of "any sufficient reason to emigrate." Tatyana Ulanovsky and her mother have a clear reason and desire to emigrate and Join Lev Ulanovsky in Israel. We. as free individuals. must speak out for those less fortunate individuals suffering senseless harassment and bureaucratic persecution in the Soviet Union. Not only are those who apply to emigrate denied permission to leave the Soviet Union. but upon application. they lose jobs. opportunities for education and housing. and must face personal indignities. arrests. and often imprisonment. We are currently witnessing the sharpest decline in Jewish emigration from the Soviet Union since it effectively began in 1971. A comparison of todays emigration statistics with those from 3 years ago reveals a shocking 96percent decline in Jewish emigration from the Soviet Union. Only 9.447 Soviet Jews were permitted to emigrate last year as compared to 51.320 in 1979. Last month alone. a mere 86 Soviet Jews arrived in Vienna with Israeli visas compared to the 4.068 who received visas In July of 1979. Hebrew teachers and Jewish activists have been experiencing an increased number of searches. seizures. and arrestssystematic harassment aimed at the eventual breakdown of the Jewish community in the Soviet Union. We. as free individuals. cannot tolerate such violations of others human rights and personal freedoms.*