Speech #990073474

Unfortunately. it is the signatory nations whose citizens are most in need of the Helsinki accords protections whose governments have failed 11o honor these commitments. The Soviet Unions treatment of its Jewish citizens is a glaring example of this sad fact. Despite signing the Helsinki guarantee that every citizen has the right to leave any country. including their own. the Soviet Union has permitted only a small fraction of its Jewish population to emigrate. Although in 1979. a record 51.000 Jews were permitted to leave the Soviet Union. in 1984. only 896 Soviet Jews were granted permission to emigrate. That number is a small portion of the 400.000 who are estimated to have applied to emigrate. and of the 20.000 repeatedly refused permission to leave. Soviet Jews. unable to emigrate and forced to remain in the Soviet Union against their will. face a dismal fate. Often they lose their jobs and face increased persecution simply as a result of applying to emigrate. Even Soviet Jews who have never expressed a desire to leave their country are denied the most basic rights to which the Soviet.Union explicitly committed .itself a decade ago. Jews are forbidden to attend religious services. learn Hebrew. or instruct their children in .the fundamentals of their faith.