Speech #990027244

Tyners article for the xecord: [From the Chicago Tribune. Mar. 20. 1985] GORBACHEV FAILS To LixT Sovisr JEWS HOPES (By Howard A. Tyner) Moscow.-At this citys central synagogue Saturday night. there was the usual talk about emigration. If the leadership change here has raised a few hopes or lifted any spirits among Soviet Jews. it wasnt readily apparent. "We think of ourselves as a kind of currency that the Soviet government is keeping to be spent at some time In the future." said Boris. a former chemist with a passion for reading Englishlanguage magazines. * "How and when we are spent depends on the circumitances. not the man in charge." The new man in charge. Mikhail Gorbachev. has stirred hopes in the West for better relations with the Kremlin. But J.ws here. who know that emigration increases whenever the International climate improves. remain skeptical about what lies ahead. "We will believe he means something different when he does something different. not before." another man outside the synagogue said. Since the mid1970s. the synagogue on Arkhipova Street has served as an informal gathering place for Soviet refuseniksJews refused permission to emigrate. Last Saturday night. clustered in small knots in front of the buildings granite columns. they exhibited little emotion about the leadership turnover. The picture for Soviet Jews who want to emigrate is not a bright one. The rate of emigration. often considered a barometer of EastWest relations in general. has sunk to nearly zero. Western figures show only 88 Jews were allowed to leave in February and 61 the month before. According tc the Intergovernmental Committee for Migration. the total for all of last year was only 908. During the 1970s. when detente was more the order of the day. almost 250.000 Jews emigrated. reaching a peak of 51.300 in 1979. That was the year the Kremlin ordered its troops into Afghanistan. provoking a sharp reaction by the West and sending the international scene into tensionfilled gloom. Beginning in 1980. thL number of exit permits plunged sharply to a recent average of 80 a month. How many of the estimated 2.5 million Jews still living in the Soviet Union want to leave is a matter of debate. Twice in the last 18 months. a Soviet official has insisted publicly that virtually all those who sought to emigrate have done so already. But Jewish organizations in the West contend that 350.000 Jews have embarked on the long and difficult emigration process. which routinely results in loss of Jobs and ostracism by friends and colleagues. During the last year or so. police have cracked down on activists promoting Jewish religion and history. Particular attention has been focused on unofficial teachers of Hebrew who hold courses in private apartments.