Speech #980071897

MRAzE: for organizing this display of concern for the victims of Soviet oppression. This event marks the fifth anniversary of Anatoly Shcharanskys trial. in which he was found guilty of "treason" and "antiSoviet agitation and propaganda" and sentenced to 13 years in labor camp for crimes he did not commit. Indeed. his only crime is his desire to see his family and emigrate to Israel to join his wife. Avital. Despite the protests of human rights activists and his wife. the Soviet authorities show no signs of releasing Mr. Shcharansky in the near future. The Soviet authorities may be able to imprison Shcharansky. but they cannot imprison his cause and what he stands for. His plight represents the struggle of thousands of Soviet Jews and refuseniks who seek to assert their fundamental human rights and emigrate from the U.S.S.R. We in the United States are watching with alarm a startling decline in Soviet Jewish emigration. Last month. fewer than 116 Jews were allowed to leave the Soviet Unionthis is less than the number of Jews permitted to leave on an average day during the peak year of 1979. Last year. only 2.700 Jews left compared to the departure of more than 50.000 in 1979. The National Conference on Soviet Jewry estimates that by the late 1970s. at least 300.000 Jews had asked relatives abroad to send invitations to emigrate. Of those 300.000. only about 33.000 have been permitted to leave the country in the last 2 years. Unfortunately. these figures do not even tell the whole story. All too often. Soviet authorities hold up the critical invitation from a relative abroad without which the arduous process of applying for exist visas cannot begin. And so. Soviet Jews are caught in a vicious circle.