Though Bar Mitzvah ceremonies and holiday celebrations are often interrupted by the arrival of the KGB and the confiscation of prized possessions and coveted Judaica. these people will not be intimidated into docile silence or quiet assimilation. Their beliefs and values are too vital. In a nation that often brands devout Jews "hooligans" and "defamers of the state." it would seem that their emigration would be welcomed. But ironically. as the antiSemitic drive grows more intensely adverse. the Soviet Government clamps down more stringently on emigration. Those Jews who seek to leave behind the oppression of the Soviet Union have been met with little success. and those applying for exit visas often set themselves up for further persecution. It is not uncommon for Jews to be dismissed from their jobs and essentially blacklisted from other employment after making exit visa applications. Mr. Speaker. the United States can and does play an important role in aiding the plight of Soviet Jewry. There seems to be a direct correlation between the Soviets treatment of their citizens and United StatesSoviet relations. In the late 1970s. during a period of United StatesSoviet cooperation. the gates of Jewish emigration seemed to swing open. In 1979. 51.320 people left the U.S.S.R. With the return of Cold War rhetoric under the Reagan administration. those gates slammed shut to allow a mere trickle of Jewish emigration. In 1981. only 9.447 Jews werr permitted to leave. This diminished io 2.688 in 1982 and 1.314 in 1983.
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emigration visas visa