Americans have always been responsive to the plight of the oppressed. Nowhere is there greater need for that response to be heard than in the case of Soviet Jewry. The emigration of Soviet Jews has slowed to a trickle. From a peak of over 50.000 in 1979. the number of Jews allowed to emigrate dropped to less than 1.000 last year. and this years figures are little better. It is indeed a frightening turn of events when the official Soviet view refuses to acknowledge even that the issue persiststhat there are Jews who wish to emigrate and Join their families outside of the Soviet Union. In addition to the reductions in emigration. the Soviet Government has stepped up its campaign of persecution. isolation. imprisonment. and harassment of those who agitate for their rights. It is clear that the Government of the Soviet Union has sought to crack down aggressively on the cultural life of its Jewish population. The situation has progressively worsened. and teachers of Jewish language and culture such as Yevgeni Aizenberg and Yuli Edelstein have been arrested and imprisoned for their teachings.
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emigrate emigration