Speech #990184075

This number represents 65 percent of European Jewry and 15 percent of world Jewry. Soviet Jews have been struggling to achieve basic human rights. including the right to maintain their own religion and culture. The right to leave any country that denies one their heritage is an internationally recognized human right. yet in the Soviet Union permission to emigrate is given arbitrarily. Since the ReaganGorbachev summit meeting last year. we have heard quite a bit about the Soviet Union allowing some Jews to emigrate. The release of Anatoly Shcharansky. the reunification of several couples outside of the Soviet Union. and Yelena Bonners visit to the United States have received headlines suggesting that this may be the beginning of a new era for Jews in the Soviet Union. Nonetheless.