Speech #980142304

I want to thank the distinguished chairman of the Human Rights and International Organizations Subcommittee for his help with this resolution. and to thank the distinguished chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee. I am speaking today not merely in support of the resolution I have sponsored. but in support of Soviet Jewry in general. a group whose long history of suffering persecution continues to this day. Soviet Jews are being subjected to attacks of their religion. to discrimination in education and culture. a highly restrictive emigration policy. and most recently. a revived campaign of virulent. antiSemite propaganda. led by fact that an estimated 300.000 Soviet Jews are still awaiting exit visas. The 2 million Jews in the Soviet Union comprise 20 percent of world Jewry. we cannot afford to remain silent as the Soviet Government persists in subjugating this longtormented minority. The recent decline in Soviet Jewish emigration has reached that crisis point. The number of Jews allowed to emigrate in 1982 was only 2.700. a startling 95percent fall from the peak 1979 figure of 50.000. This year. the average number of Jews permitted to leave the Soviet Union has been a mere 100 per month. These statistics are dismal. especially in light of the fact that an estimated 300.000 Soviet Jews are still awaiting exit visas. Unfortunately. these figures alone do not convey the grimness of the situation. We know that for the last 31/2 years. many people have been unable to apply to leave because Soviet authorities have blocked the letters of invitation from relatives abroad which are the first step in the emigration process. Even when they have their invitations. many applicants have been turned down for very questionable reasons or without explanation. In addition. Jewish emigration applicants often lose their jobs and are then reassigned to temporary or menial employment. Their children are made the objects of ridicule. and young members are quickly drafted. since conscription can delay a familys emigration for years. Some scientists and academicians. who wish to emigrate. have actually been stripped of their degrees. To add insult to injury. the Soviet leadership has published articles in widely read newspapers which cynically claim that some refuseniks are actually pleased to be denied permission to emigrate because they then become martyrs to Zionist activists abroad. Not only is the Soviet emigration policy unconscionable. but the situation for all Soviet Jews is rapidly deteriorating. In April of this year. the formation of an AntiZionist Committee of the Soviet People was announced allegedly for the purpose of combating international Zionism and of representing all Soviet Jews on matters of Jewish concern. However. a June press conference revealed the AntiZionist Committees true colors. It is intended to serve as a means of promoting and justifying the Andropov Jewish policy with respect to emigration and Zionism. Though the committee claims to distinguish between AntiZionism and antiSemitism. in reality the distinction is blurred. We are not fooled. With attacks on Jewish cultural and religious activity on the rise and emigration increasingly limited. the emergence of the AntiZionist Committee is hardly coincidential. It is an affront to Soviet Jews and to people everywhere who value human rights. The AntiZionist Committee has claimed that the reunification of divided families has been essentially completed. that most Jews who wish to leave have already done so. and that antiSemitism does not exist in the Soviet Union.