President. I join in marking this as a special day of recognition for Soviet Jews in the hope that by doing so we will elevate their treatment to the levels demanded by common decency. I have already described how the emigration levels plummeted under the regime of Yuri Andropov. Not only did he close the emigration gates. he also instituted a number of harsh measures which made the already unbearable situation of Soviet Jewry worse. Andropov gave prison officials the authority to unilaterally extend the sentence of prisoners based on an assessment of their behavior while incarcerated. He streamlined the judicial process. such as it is. to the extent that a prisoner could be arrested. tried. convicted. sentenced. and jailed in 1 day. Andropov even changed the previous policy that has allowed a prisoner to emigrate after serving his jail sentence. No longer. Ida Nudel. who served 3 years in prison for hanging a sign on her balcony that said "Let me go to Israel." continues to languish in exile near the Rumanian border.
Keywords matched
emigrate emigration