Speech #980260546

I believe it is a keen responsibility which we cannot shirk until the persecution and harassment ends. The first step in a just consideration of the needs of Soviet Jews is permission for these people to freely practice their religion. including Hebrew language instruction. the reopening of synagogues. and an end to the confiscation of prayer books. Rather than taking positive action to grant the basic freedoms to its Jewish citizens. the Soviet Union has escalated its harassment through the establishment of the Soviet antiZionist Committee. and an increase in the denial of emigration visas. It is possible that less than 1.000 Jews will be permitted to emigrate this year. Only 1.315 Soviet Jews were granted permission to emigrate last year. 50 percent less than in the previous year. and 97 percent fewer than in 1979 when 51.000 were permitted to emigrate. A growing excuse for denying permission to emigrate is "secrecy" or "consideration of state." Using this screen of secrecy the U.S.S.R. is able to deny emigration to anyone who has served in the military for the past 10 years. and a very large number of those employed in industrial enterprises and scientific institutions. It is for this reason that Abe Stolar. a World War II veteran who saw his family disappear into the concentration camps of Stalins purges. has been denied permission to emigrate to Israel. In 1974. he applied to emigrate with his wife and son to Israel and in May 1975 he received permission and was granted visas to leave. They were stopped. however. as they prepared to board the plane June 19. 1975. and told that his wife. Gitta. was being denied permission to emigrate. The denial was based on the allegation that Gitta Stoler was engaged in "secret" work before she retired as a chemical engineer in 1973. Their son. Mikhail Stolar. tried to emigrate on his own so that he would not be forced to join the military. and forfeit any chance of emigration for 10 years. His request was also denied because of his mothers "secrecy" classification. Hiding behind the screen of secrecy the Soviet Union denies the request of a patriot and veteran who served his nation in World War II.