While a policy of gasnost [openness] dominated the Western perception of the Soviet Union. the character and direction of Mikhail Gorbachevs Jewish policy belie this perception. As a cosponsor of House Concurrent Resolution 34. I strongly support its condemnation of the continued violations by the Soviet Union of its international human rights obligations. especially its violations of the right to emigrate. Although Gorbachev has promoted certain important reforms of the Soviet system. the Jews in the Soviet Union continue to suffer. The new emigration decree amounted to little more than rhetoric. In fact. there is a continuing shutdown of Jewish emigration. as well as persistent harassment and intimidation of Jewish selfstudy efforts to sustain culture and religion. The facts are that only 914 Jews were permitted to leave the Soviet Union in 1986. compared with 1.140 in 1985. down from 896 the previous year. and 51.000 in 1979. If the Soviet Union is truly serious about human rights. it need only free the prisoners of conscience. including those whom it has incarcerated for teaching Hebrew and insisting on the right to be repatriated to Israel. grant visas to the thousands of refuseniks. and start issuing visas to the 400.000 Soviet Jews who have initiated the emigration procedure. I will be visiting the Soviet Union later this month with some of my colleagues. and human rights remains my major concern. The timing of our visit could not be better.
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emigrate emigration visas