The appalling nature of the Soviet leadership has illustrated that the pursuit of civil rights and the quest for even the most basic of human freedoms has resulted in imprisonment. exile. torture. and ultimately death. Such are the prospects awaiting the Soviet Jewry as they attempt to exercise the false freedoms and shallow promises found in the Soviet constitution. Today we in the United States pay a special tribute to those who risk their lives daily not only in the pursuit of emigration but in the very practice of their religion. We salute the refuseniks who after witnessing the formulation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the signing of the Helsinki Final Act saw their dreams of a peaceful exodus end in a reign of renewed Soviet brutality and oppression. We have seen the number of emigrants drop from over 50.000 in 1979 to less than 900 in 1984. To deny one Soviet Jew his personal rights due to his expression of religion is incarceration. to deny the Jewish people their rights as a whole is nothing short of tyranny. As a member of the Congressional Coalition for Soviet Jews.
Keywords matched
emigration emigrants