Mr. Speaker. the crisis facing Soviet Jews today is more terrifying than anything that has happened since World War II when Hitlers legions swept into the Soviet Union and slaughtered many thousands of Jews. For the past 5 years. this crackdown. known as the Brezhnev pogrom. has resulted in a precipitous drop in Jewish emigration from the Soviet Union. In fact. there were 51.321 emigrations in 1979 and only 896 in 1984. This is a startling fact. These people are being oppressed so badly In their own country that they have no choice but to leave. yet they are then told that they cannot leave. The shocking reduction in exit visas to which I referred is a direct and flagrant violation of the Helsinki Final Act that the Soviet Union negotiated and signed on August 1. 1975. Now. 10 years later. we can see the sincerity with which they signed this solemn and legal treaty among 35 nations. Unfortunately. the question of freedom of movement and emigration is not the only violation of the human rights of Soviet Jews. Many Jews have been arrested or harassed by the secret police and the KGB for no apparent reason other than the fact that they are Jews and were born in the Soviet Union. The teaching of Hebrew has been declared to be illegal in the Soviet Union.
Keywords matched
emigration visas emigrations