Mr. President. for some time now the free world has watched with growing dismay the rise in recent years of Soviet official harassment and outright persecution of Soviet Jews. The numbers of Soviet Jews who are successful in their quest to emigrate under the guarantees of the Helsinki Final Act and other international agreements has dwindled to a pathetic trickle. Even those Soviet Jews who wish only to live in peace in the Soviet Union and be allowed to practice their religion and preserve their language and cultural traditions have confronted Increasingly troublesome official obstacles. Recently a most serious violation of fundamental human rights has come to my attention. A number of distinguished Soviet Jewish scientists seeking to emigrate have been informed that their advanced degrees have been or will be arbitrarily revoked. As a recent Wall Street Journal article reporting the situation notes: Not since the imposition by the Kremlin of the scandalous diploma tax in August 1972 has the Soviet Jewish intellectual been confronted by such a serious threat to his fundamental academic rights as well as his livelihood. The Soviet Union must understand that the world will not remain silent in the face of this kind of outrage.
Keywords matched
emigrate