We cannot be certain that he has ever seen them. Rabbi Abramov. like the other 20 adopted prisoners of conscience. represents hundreds of thousands of Jews who suffer daily persecution. harassment. and abuse in the Soviet Union. They would leave. except that they are denied permission to emigrate by the Soviet authorities. They are hostages. even those not in prisons and labor camps are nonetheless prisoners. All are harassed and discouraged from the practice of religioneven rabbis. and live with a barrage of Soviet antiSemitic propaganda. Those who seek to emigrate may be dismissed or demoted at work. physically abused. intimidated. Their mail may be confiscated. their telephone service disconnected. or they may be conscripted into the military or arrested on trumpedup charges. Every Member of this body recently joined in a letter to President Reagan denouncing this abuse of human rights and asking the President to present our unified and adamant opposition to the continued persecution of Soviet Jewry.
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