Increase in antiSemitism in the official Soviet media. thinly veiled as antiZionism. The obscene historical revisionism of the Holocaust. in which the Jews become not the victims. but the perpetrators of Nazi aggression. The isolation of Soviet Jews through Soviet violations of international postal and telecommunications agreements. and. finally. the cessation of Jewish emigration. leaving tens of thousands of tragically separated families. SovietJewish emigration has been paralyzed in the past few years. Just a handful of emigrants. 1.315. received permission to leave in 1983. This year. barely a thousand will leave the U.S.S.R. Compare that to the high in 1979 when 51.320 Jews were released. Meanwhile. we know that approximately 350.000 Soviet Jews have begun the difficult process of emigration. Clearly. this situation must change. Jews are denied exit visas for absurd and arbitrary reasons. Families are separated all too often as one member is allowed to emigrate. leaving the others behind. When emigrants have invited family members to join them in the West. Soviet officials have rejected the application for various empty reasons. such as no reason for reunification or insufficient kinship. When my colleagues and I discussed these problems with Soviet officials. we were told that we were interfering in the internal affairs of the Soviet Union.
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emigrate emigration visas emigrants