Speech #1000019843

The terrible plight of Jews in the Soviet Union is one of the most shameful wholesale violations of human rights in the world today. Soviet General Secretary Gorbachevs much publicized policy of glasnost or openness. has yet to prove to be much more than tactical and cosmetic where it concerns Jews in the Soviet Union. The new socalled progressive emigration decree actually offers little hope to the hundreds of thousands of Jews seeking the right to leave. There had been some hope of a positive shift in Soviet policy when some refuseniks noted that the emigration decree. which updated a 1970 statute. had by implication recognized that departure was not a "criminal act." and that under certain conditions "ordinary citizens" could depart from the U.S.S.R. However. upon closer inspection. the decree codified restrictive practices in effect since 1980. which allowed Jews to leave only on the basis of family reunification. rather than as a fundamental right. Seemingly humanitarian. it fixed in law the narrow definition of family as including only parents. children and siblings. condemning hundreds of thousands of people from ever applying for. much less receiving. permission to leave. The new decree left Soviet authorities with absolute power to reject applications for emigration. It ignored many of the human rights provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. and the more recent Helsinki accords. to which the Soviet Union is signatory. The cold truth is that glasnost has changed little or nothing for Soviet Jews. Only 914 Jews were permitted to leave the Soviet Union in 1986. compared with 1.140 in 1985 and 896 the previous year. These figures are a far cry from the alltime high of 51.320 in 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 issuing visas to the hundreds of thousands of Soviet Jews who have initiated the emigration procedures. Last week I met with Mrs. Bronislava Gimpelson and her son. Alexandre. in my home district. Mrs. Gimpelson emigrated from the Soviet Union 10 years ago with her son. forced to divorce her husband in the process. Her husband was denied a visa because Soviet officials said his work as an electrical engineerwhich was terminated by Soviet officials 14 years agomeant he had access to state secrets. She said the divorce was not an easy step to take. but it was the only one for them because their son was quickly approaching draft age. Had he been inducted into the Soviet military. he. too. would have been denied an exit visa. Mrs. Gimpelsons case is but one of many tragic situations that demonstrate the ongoing plight of Soviet Jews.