Speech #980166553

Some 1.8 million Soviet Jews have become a pawn in the U.S.-Soviet relationship. victims of a resumed cold war between the superpowers. As U.S.Soviet relations have worsened. so has the treatment of Soviet Jews. While Soviet officials insist that their treatment of Jews is an internal matter. the facts regarding Jewish emigration indicate that Soviet emigration policy is closely linked to relations with Washington. In 1983 the Soviet Union allowed only about 1.300 Jews to emigrate. the lowest annual total in 20 years. In 1983. the fourth consecutive year that the number of Jewish citizens successfully petitioning to leave the country dropped sharply. The 1983 figure is only half the 2.668 emigrants who left the Soviet Union in 1982. and stands in distressing contrast to the 51.320 Soviet Jews permitted to emigrate in Restrictions on emigration are not our only concern in the treatment of Jews in the Soviet Union. Equally disturbing. the drop in emigration has been accompanied by an intensifying crackdown on the rights of Jews who choose tostay in the Soviet Union and a policy of retribution toward those who seek to leave the country. Soviet Jews have persistently been denied rights granted to other national minorities and religious groups which are guaranteed by the Soviet constitution. Furthermore. the Soviet press consistently attempts to incite hatred through antiJewish propaganda.