Speech #990007539

Mr. President. this is my first opportunity as a participant in the congressional call to conscience to speak to my colleagues about the difficult situation of Jews in the Soviet Union. When the United States signed the Helsinki accords. we pledged to guarantee certain basic human rights. including freedom of religion and the right to emigrate. If our signature means anything at all. we must not only guarantee human rights at home. but we must also speak out when these basic principles are violated by any nation which has agreed to uphold them. The Soviet Union is a signatory to the Helsinki accords. As I mentioned. one of the rights guaranteed by the accords is the right to emigrate. but one look at the Jewish emigration numbers indicates a clear Soviet violation of this most important principle. Jewish emigration has plummeted from a high of 51.320 in 1979 to a pathetic low of 896 in 1984. The reason for the decline is not that fewer Jews wish to emigrate. On the contrary. more than 350.000 Soviet Jews have begun the emigration process. The United States has repeatedly raised this issue with the Soviets. Members of Congress have made a personal commitment to this fight for freedom by meeting with refuseniks when they visit the Soviet Union. and many American citizens have worked tirelessly on the issue for years. I have been particularly impressed by the dedication and commitment of those young Americans who are members of the Student Coalition for Soviet Jewry. As the emigration numbers have fallen. our sense of frustration has deepened. Recently. this frustration has given way to real concern for the very safety of Soviet Jews. There is evidence that harassment of the Jewish community has accelerated in the U.S.S.R. We have received reports of a campaign to stamp out Jewish religious and cultural practices. and have followed with alarm the creation of the AntiZionist Committee. and the showing of a virulently antiSemitic program on Leningrad television. The situation is especially precarious for Jews who make public their desire to emigrate. We know that once a Jew takes the first step in the emigration process. he Is subject to harassment and intimidation. he loses his job. and in some cases. is arrested and tried on trumped up petty and criminal charges. All of this points to a very dangerous pattern of discrimination against Soviet Jews. It is a pattern that no American in good conscience can ignore.