The charges were engaging in antiSoviet agitation. slander. and propagandathe standard rhetoric used by the Government in its repressive exercises. Further attacks have come through the "AntiZionist Committee on the Soviet Public" which has served as a platform from which the media has launched a campaign of antiSemitic propaganda. These developments become even more disturbing in view of the decline in emigration. In 1979. 31.000 Jews were permitted to leave the Soviet Union. In 1984 the total exodus was 896. This was 30percent less than in 1983 and 98percent less than in 1979. The State Department estimates that 400.000 Jews-(20 percent of the communitywould emigrate if the Soviet Government would allow it. Soviet Jews are trapped in a labyrinth. a Catch22. created by the game of application for emigration. denials. false accusations. threats and labor camps. It is a slow process of mental and physical corture in which reality and absurdity are inextricably linked. And if we ask why it is so. that also eludes a logical answer. for the Soviet Government neither wants the Jews in its country nor does it wish to permit them to leave.
Keywords matched
emigrate emigration