This vigil will be repeated for as long as necessary. for our vigilance must not lag. This years vigil comes at a time of transition. Many people hope that the new Soviet leader. Mikhail Gorbachev. will loosen the Soviet Unions tightfisted emigration policy. Indeed. we have witnessed a shocking decrease in the number of Jews allowed to emigrate. In the period 196881. total Jewish emigration was 259.619. in the 3 years since 1981. however. this figure has declined to under 5.000. While nothing In Mr. Gorbachevs past encourages us in this hope. we must nevertheless stress that new leadership can also bring new policies.
Keywords matched
emigrate emigration