Mr. MAASS. Perhaps you might have some questions, Mr. Rosenthal? And I think Mr. Goodman will introduce Mrs. Gluzman, who is a recent emigrant.

Mr. ROSENTHAL. Why don't you do that?

Mr. GOODMAN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We have brought with us Mrs. Rita Gluzman, who will give you her own story and her own biography much more impressively than we can.

What is significant is that Mrs. Gluzman is in this country today to try and gather support, both official and unofficial, from the American people to help secure the release of her husband. He was left behind in the Soviet Union nearly 2 years ago, and has never seen their son born in Israel.

I think the best witness to her private situation, as well as to the general situation, would be someone like Mrs. Gluzman who is here only recently from the Soviet Union, as a Ukrainian Jew. She has asked that I apologize in advance for her English which, I believe, is actually quite good.

STATEMENT OF MRS. RITA GLUZMAN, A RECENT EMIGRANT FROM THE SOVIET UNION TO ISRAEL

Mrs. GLUZMAN. I want to thank you for giving me an opportunity to speak. When I speak in some place we can speak only in general words about the situation of Soviet Jews in Russia. With my life, and my experience, these are facts, and when you see facts, we have to speak about the results of the facts and nobody can understand in the general word.

When I was in Montreal, Canada, the same day Kosygin was there, and the same day there was a press conference and somebody asked again, "What is it about the Jewish question in the Soviet Union?" He said, "We have no troubles. We have 1 percent-Jews are only 1 percent of our population, but they are 8 percent of students and other things."

But then when in Montreal somebody asked him, "And what about Yakov Gluzman and what about the fact that he is separated from his wife for 2 years? And what about Ilan Gluzman?" This is my son, who is more than 1 year old, and is already walking and speaking, and who has never seen his father! Nobody from the Soviet authorities can answer.

In Montreal-everybody knew that now, today, in this city, there is a woman who came to ask Mr. Kosygin to return my husband to me and to give a father to my child. Mr. Kosygin knew this the whole night because thousands of people in this town cried, "Free Yakov,"this is the name of my husband-they did this in front of the hotel. A few days earlier I got a letter of assistance from Prime Minister Trudeau, and it was promised to me in this letter that they will bring my case to the attention of the Soviet authorities, that they will do everything they can for me because thousands of people in this country are concerned what happens to me and other thousands like me. My tragedy is not only my tragedy because I am only an example of what happens to Jews in the Soviet Union.

When I read in the New York Times this article about Mr. Davies and it is written that limitations on Jews have been more stringent

than on other Russians because of ties to the West and to Israel, I want to say to you that in this article they put their heads on the floor. Why? Because we now look to Israel and we look now to the West because we are deprived and not the opposite.

A FEW YEARS OF FREEDOM

And if you look at our history in this country, and what happened to us now, you will see that this is true and not the opposite. Maybe more people ask, why does it happen that these days suddenly the majority of Soviet Jews say "we don't want to live any more in this country," why not before? Why not 10 years or 20 years ago, why now? Because if you look on the history of Soviet Jews in Russia, you will find that after the revolution there were a few years of freedom for the Soviet Union because before the revolution Jews can't live in big cities like Moscow, Leningrad, and others.

But then came Stalin and he made a lot of trouble for his people and everybody. He began his campaign against the Jews because he was afraid of the Jewish population which gave a lot of bright people to the country. They were in government, and he killed them. Half of my family he killed.

At this time not only we Jews couldn't ask for permission to go to Israel but everybody was afraid when somebody knocked on their door. And then came Khrushchev and he brought the truth about Stalin to the Soviet people. He brought a little bit of freedom after Stalin and we were not afraid to listen to the radio. But the schools and the theaters and everything that was closed under Stalin, it was not opened to the Jews under Khrushchev. And then came Kosygin which caused an explosion of Jewish silence in this country, because the Jews in this country have no more hopes about our freedom in this country.

My father said to me, "You have no more work to do in this country." And not only my father said that to me. In Moscow and other cities, we are not asking for better life in this country. We don't ask for Hebrew schools in this country. We don't ask for Hebrew books in this country. We ask only for them to let our people go. We have our own homeland. This homeland needs us and we need this homeland. We can live in Israel and we can be proud that we are Jews. We can live like Jews. We can get everything we want, so why can't we go there? And here stands the great tragedy of Soviet Jews. We are finished in Russia. We don't want to live any more in this country.

SPEAKING FOR A MAJORITY OF SOVIET JEWS

I am speaking about the majority of Jews in Russia. And Soviet authorities are not afraid when my father said to them, I don't want to live here. But when I and my husband, we are only 23 years old and we were born in Russia. We heard only Russian propaganda. We heard how wonderful was socialism and communism. We were students in the universities and we said we don't want more of your university, we want to go to Israel. If you are students in Moscow University and if you come to this university you see Arab newspapers with pictures of concentration camps for Arabs in Israel. Pictures where you see

Israeli soldiers killing a child. You know that this is not the truth because you listen to the radio, and you read in this newspaper that you have to do every thing against Zionism, against Israel. If you are Jewish, you feel that this is against you because all of your relatives are in Israel and what is a "Zionist"? This is when Jews-and if we know this and if we read this in our university, we said, "We don't want this university. We don't want to get knowledge in this university."

And what I read in this newspaper today is that there is no freedom in this country. Yes, there are no concentration camps for us yet in this country. But our spirit is not free and the first quest for people, if you are not stupid, is spirit. Then your heart. We have freedom where to live, but if our spirit is not free, and we can't be proud that we are Jews-and if we have to remember every day and every minute that we are Jews because it is written in the first page in our passport and if you want to enter a university or travel, in every place you go in this country, the first question is your nationality and you write "Jew", and because of this, you can't get a visa, this and this and this, and many other things, and you have troubles.

NO HEBREW BOOKS

And from the other side, I don't know what it means to be a Jew. The first time I saw the Hebrew alphabet in my life was when I came to Israel. There is not one Hebrew book in this country; not one Hebrew school in this country. Nothing. I was born in the Ukraine where 50,000 Jews live, a half of the population. This is not such a nice place to go there. Not one school, not one book. Yes, they publish in Yiddish, but I think that to buy this magazine is a dirty work because what can we read in this magazine. It is published by Soviet authorities. And we don't read Yiddish. Our language is Hebrew. Why can't we see any Hebrew book in this country? But the question is that we don't ask now for Hebrew books in Soviet Russia. Because of the foreign policy of Soviet Russia it happens so that 3 million Jews in Russia feel now that they are struggling against their brothers in Israel because even my husband, who is working like a carpenter, he is producing a wardrobe for Russian people and Russian people support Arab countries and are struggling against Israel, and because of this, his child is 1 year old in Israel, he can get anything he needs now because our money is going on the work.

This gave feeling that we Soviet Jews have against the Israelis and we don't want this feeling. We can't go this way and that is why we young people, not only old people like my grandparents, like my parents, my grandparents know what it means to live a Jewish life. We don't know anything about a Jewish life and we have to be a Jew. We have to be Jewish.

It is written in our passport. We can't forget this. Because of this we have troubles. Because of this we have to struggle against our relatives in Israel. So we want to go there. If we can't live like Jews in the Soviet Union, we want to go to Israel and to build up our own country. And here is our tragedy because only a small percent of the people who are asking for permission to go to Israel are allowed to go to Israel and you can imagine what it means to get permission to go to Israel.

HUSBAND IS A CARPENTER

My husband is a carpenter, not an important worker. He is not in the government. He is not in the army. He has no high identification. He was a student of Moscow University but then we decided to break our life and not to give any reason for Soviet authorities to keep him in the country and he left the university and he began to work like a carpenter in a small town, Hinktin, in the Ukraine, and he is producing now wardrobes and beds. It is not so important for Russia and he has a wife and 1-year-old child in Israel and they still said, "No," and I came here to beg you, to ask you to help me to return my husband to me and to give a father to my baby because this situation can't go on. Two years, 2 years I am waiting and I am crying for my husband. The Soviets cannot say he is an important worker. He is free from them. They cannot say that he knows any secrets from them. Why do they keep him in that country? Why my husband cannot go to Israel? And I want to say that only you can help me because when I wrote thousands of letters-to Kosygin, and Breshnev, to everybody, to the whole Presidium in the Soviet Union, and when I sent them photos of my child, my child is a pretty child, and I thought maybe if they will see a little baby, their hearts will be not so hard and they will get my message and let my husband go. What did they do? They invited my husband and they returned the photos and they said they don't need these.

So you see, that only you can help me and to thousands of people that are in a situation like myself. You have not to speak in general words about the situation of Jews in Russia about their plight. Today you can speak with me, with my baby. Tomorrow you will have another fact because so many thousands of people are suffering from this terrible plight that every day you will have a fact. No general words about our plight.

A fact that they chose my 1-year-old baby that has never seen his father, and Soviet authorities have no one reason to keep my husband in Soviet Russia, and that is why they don't give reason when they said, "Nyet, no."

Mr. ROSENTHAL. Mrs. Gluzman, can you tell us about life in general in the Soviet Union for Jews and other minorities? Is there a difference in the denial of rights between the various minorities?

Mrs. GLUZMAN. Yes, there is because in Siberia there are nationalities, there are only a few hundred people in this nationality and in Leningrad is a special research institute that is looking to produce books for this nationality, to open culture. Only Jews have nothing.

If you find one book in Hebrew in one Soviet shop in the whole of Russia, you can say that everything that I am saying is not the truth. One Hebrew page in this country.

OTHER NATIONALITIES

And a nationality that has only from a few hundred people in Siberia, a few hundred people, they do everything for this nationality. They want to show that they are concerned with nationality. Ukrainians have their Kiev. They have a Ukrainian university, they have Ukrainian schools. I was born in the Ukraine so I studied every week 6 hours Ukrainian language and literature at school. And only we

have no one school, not one lesson we can get in Hebrew and we have to be a Jew. We can't forget it because it is written in our passport. Because of this we can't enter the university that we want and if you find one Jew in the university where there are 50,000 Jews, you will say that everything that I say is not true. In the city where I was born are 50,000 Jews. There is a university, an old university. There are three medical institutes, and no Jews allowed to study there. Why? Where is my silver medal? I had to get a silver medal after I finished my secondary school because I had only excellent and too good, so according to the Soviet rule, I have to have a silver medal. I do not have a silver medal. Why? I can say that there are no camps for us, of course not. Because we are sitting now here and because we are speaking about us but they can't be sure what will be tomorrow and we Jews in Soviet Russia, we are not asking for better life in this country. We are not asking for Hebrew schools. Of course, it will be wonderful if they suddenly open such schools for us but nobody has hopes on this, and we have our own homeland and we want to return to our homeland and to have our Hebrew books and to have our Hebrew schools and to be proud and to do everything we want, everything we want.

Of all nationalities in Russia, only we have our homeland, only we have, and only we are almost deprived, and that is why we have all of our rights to ask now to go to this country. Why not? Why not? Mr. ROSENTHAL. Congressman Buchanan.

Mr. BUCHANAN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mrs. Gluzman, I think that we are all impressed, not only with the force and beauty of your statement but with the fact that you are fighting a battle for the human race and a very basic battle for human rights, not only for your own personal rights. And I would feel, Mr. Chairman, whatever else we do, we certainly must do everything we can about this.

I wonder, Mrs. Gluzman, if you have specific suggestions as to what you believe we might do to help you and your son and husband and then what we might do to help others in this situation?

Mrs. GLUZMAN. One question I want to discuss here is that what happens to me, you know, is a tragedy of humanity. I don't think that only because of what happened to me because I think any husband or any father can understand this. And every wife and every woman can understand my suffering, that I am 2 years separated. I can't live. A brother can wait for a sister but I can't live without a husband.

A FATHERLESS CHILD

My baby is growing like a fatherless baby. I think that not only Jews have to be concerned as to what happened to me and other people in Soviet Russia. I think that all people of good will in the whole world can help us and must help us and I am sure that if all people were to be concerned seriously and have strong feelings as to what happened to me, I am sure that there will be no more young women who would cry as I am crying now. I am sure that there will be no more babies that will grow like fatherless babies while their father is alive. You can do a lot for me. You can help me. When I can get such a kind letter from the Canadian Government, why can't I get such a kind letter from the U.S. Government. You can do a lot for