Speech #990153723

The Soviet Union is certainly not the only nation in the world which practices official discrimination. but its policies are among the most blatantly offensive to the conscience of the world. The Soviet Union is a prisonincarcerating within its borders the vast majority of Jews not put behind bars. sentenced to work camps. or confined in what the Soviets politely refer to as hospitals. The Soviet Unions barriers to Jewish emigration. to enjoyment Jewish tradition and culture. to practice of the Jewish faith. to use of the Hebrew language constitute nothing short of antiSemitism. The Nazi Holocaust destroyed 6 million lives. The Soviet Union seeks to destroy hundreds of thousands of hearts and minds and souls. Despite the Soviet Unions commitment in 1974 to join with the civilized nations of the world in observing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Helsinki Final Act. the free thought. religion. and movement guaranteed by these documents have been consistently and systematically ignored by the Soviet Union. The emigration of Soviet Jews last year plunged to its lowest level since 1963. More than three times as many Jews were permitted to leave the Soviet Union in each month of 1979 than in all of 1983. An intolerable situation is worsening. The Soviet Union has created an "AntiZionist Committee of the Soviet Public." the purpose of which is to compel the Jewish community to sever its physical. emotional. and spiritual ties with the State of Israel. The hundreds of thousands of Jews who desperately seek to leave the Soviet Union are forced to endure again and again the labyrinthine application process for exit visas that are denied again and again. Soviet law encourages the firing of Jews who try to emigrate to countries where they may freely practice their religion. Many of the most courageous of these people who have challenged the Soviet system for the benefit of humanity everywhere have been fired. then arrested. tried. and summarily convicted as "parasites" because they are unemployedan institutionalized catch22 without equal in the world. Those who attempt to preserve and pass along the strength and wisdom of thousands of years of Jewish history. tradition. and language suffer special harassment at the hands of the Soviet state.