Today we are recognizing the more than 400.000 Jews who seek their moral and legal right to leave the Soviet Union in search of religious freedom and the ability to study their culture and history. Day in and day out the Government of the Soviet Union denies the rights of Jews and others to practice their faith. and subjects them to physical and psychological harassment. beatings. imprisonment. confinement in mental institutions. and the separation of family members. In addition. severe restrictions are maintained on Jewish emigration. Such treatment flagrantly violates international obligations set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. and the Helsinki Final Act. This behavior must not go unchallenged by those governments and societies which do honor their obligations to respect human rights under those documents. The emigration figures give a detafled picture of the plight of Soviet Jews. In 1979. the Soviet Government permitted more than 50.000 Jews to emigrate. compared to only 1.300 in 1983. The 1983 figure represents less than half the 1982 figure and the lowest level since the late sixties. So far this year. 652 Soviet Jews have emigrated. The ability of Soviet Jews to leave the Soviet Union has all but ended. leaving thousands confined against their will and confronted by a society that is becoming increasingly antiSemitic. America has long been a symbol of freedom for the oppressed peoples of the world.
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emigrate emigration emigrated