Speech #990051768

The Soviet authorities deny these allegations. They counter that Jews occupy positions of importance within Soviet society as professionals and academics and that they are not mistreated. It is their position that the level of emigration has dropped because few Soviet Jews have a desire to emigrate and that many who have left are unhappy. They assert that those who apply to emigrate are not stigmatized. But. Mr. President. I would like to tell you about Yull Kosharovsky. a Soviet refusenik whom I have adopted. He and his family have been trying to emigrate to Israel from Moscow for 14 years. Yuli is a 36yearold radio electronics engineer. He first applied to emigrate from the Soviet Union in April 1971. but his application was refused one month later on the grounds of the "secrecy" of his previous work. In May 1980. Kosharovsky was advised that his period of "secrecy" had expired. but that he would not be permitted to emigrate for a new reasonthe absence of close relatives in Israel. During the years that Kosharovsky has been compelled to live as a refusenik in the Soviet Union. he has been the target of relentless harassment and intimidation. Denied work in his chosen profession because of his desire to emigrate. Kosharovsky was then threatened with arrest in 1977 on a "parasitism" charge. He was placed under house arrest during President Nixons visit to the Soviet Union and has imprisoned on charges of "hooliganism" and disturbing the public order. He was even led away from his home in chains on one occasion. Mr. Kosharovsky and his family have endured more than a decade of suffering and hardship resulting fromhis desire to emigrate to Israel and his teaching of Hebrew. He and his family are part of a large and growing number of Jews across the Soviet Union who have regrettably concluded that there is no future for them in their country and who seek to establish new lives for themselves in the historic homeland of the Jewish peopleIsrael. Americans from many walks of life have focussed their attention and efforts upon working for the repatriation of Kosharovsky and thousands of other Jewish refuseniks. I will continue my efforts on behalf of Kosharovsky until he and his family are allowed to emigrate to Israel. The Soviets must be made to realize how abhorrent the world finds their treatment of their own Jewish citizens. We implore the Soviet Union to recognize the universal right of emigration and to release those who are held in that country against their will.