Mr. BONKER. I just want to ask one question, then we will proceed with the other panelists.

Your fourth recommendation that we take up this matter with our allies I think is extremely important. One reason why the grain embargo and the denial of export licenses on the pipeline aren't effective is because our allies are not cooperating. Therefore, they get the business which is denied to our own businessmen.

Mr. MEEK. I think in this area it is really, as I say, more of a problem not so much of saying well, does denying technology per se make a difference or does not selling grain make a difference? But I think it is very difficult when you read what the Soviets are saying about the United States in their own media analyses.

The complaint they have had for years-not just with this administration, but the past administration-has been there is no consistency. They don't understand what is going on.

Part of the reason the Soviets don't understand is because they themselves change their policies fairly often. I think in terms of responding to these questions, it is very difficult to expect any great movement in this area given the domestic and international pressures that surround these issues of leverage unless everyone gets together and decides on some course of action.

I think the problem here is that the Europeans, whether they are right or not, are probably in the position at the moment of having greater leverage on the Soviet Union in the Soviet Jewry area than the United States does at this time.

I think unless there is some coordination, they will go ahead and continue to do whatever is in their own best interests, which may not necessarily agree with the United States, to the detriment of both the alliance and Soviet Jewry.

Mr. BONKER. Absolutely.

Dr. Korey, before we have to break, maybe you can start your statement.

STATEMENT OF WILLIAM KOREY, DIRECTOR OF
INTERNATIONAL POLICY RESEARCH, B'NAI B'RITH

Mr. KOREY. I will be very brief.

The written testimony is available to you. Perhaps I can just summarize it in brief. I am treating here the condition of Judaism throughout all of Eastern Europe which, as you know, is the heartland, the seminal source of the great priceless culture of modern Jewry.

Much of this-much of the people and the culture has been lost to us as a consequence of the Holocaust. There are only some four tiny communities in Czechoslovakia, Poland, Bulgaria, and Yugoslavia; somewhat larger communities, but still small in Hungary and Romania, some 80,000 in Hungary, some 37,000 in Romania, and then a very sizable community of 24 million people in the Soviet Union.

These people, this remnant of a once flourishing culture today is disappearing in part as a result of the Holocaust, in part as a result of continuing anti-Semitism and in some cases expulsion from the country, and in part-with reference to the Soviet Union-a forcible program of assimilation, we may be confronted

in the next generation or two with the total disappearance of this once great culture.

Article 27 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights ought to be our guideline. This is in essence international law. Article 27 refers to the enjoyment of a culture, the professing of a religion, and the use of a language. In these contexts, to some extent the condition of Jewry in the various countries of Eastern Europe varies one from another, but it varies mostly significantly from the condition of Judaism in the Soviet Union. Let me elaborate.

Some 6,000 to 7,000 Jews in each of the tiny countries that I mentioned have no rabbi, have no Hebrew schools, have no continuous prayer services. This is largely a consequence of demographic factors, it is an aging community, a very elderly community; nonetheless, in each of these countries there is a central structure which maintains a certain semblance of Jewish life.

The central structure is even more obvious in the case of Hungary and Romania where the central body of Judaism, as it were-it is partly Judaic, partly secular-maintains a fairly elaborate religious institution with numerous synagogues and rabbis in the case of Hungary; a very elaborate educational system whether in the form of schools in Romania, or in the form of religious schoolsyeshivot-in Hungary, even to the extent in Hungary of having a seminary for the training of rabbis. Not only is the seminary for the training of rabbis in Hungary; ironically, it is the means for the training of rabbis throughout all of Eastern Europe, including the Soviet Union. At the same time this Jewish apparatus, besides dealing with religion and education, engages in an extensive welfare program, a social and welfare program.

All of this is absent in the Soviet Union. In the Soviet Union there is no central structure for Judaism, differentiating it from any other major organized religion in the Soviet Union.

I am reminded, Mr. Chairman, of your question that you posed very early on about the distinction between Judaism in the Soviet Union and that of any other major religion. The condition of Judism is far, far worse. Every researcher in the field documents or comments upon this extraordinary distinction. Similarly, the distinction applies as well to the condition of Jews in other East European countries and the condition of non-Jews within the Soviet Union.

Every other major religious structure in the Soviet Union, major religion in the Soviet Union, has a central structure, has a center. Judaism is characterized by extreme fragmentation, pulverization, and therefore great vulnerability to powerful state forces.

The absence of such a center prevents the publication of a periodical. For example, the Russian Orthodox can prepare a regular periodical. Judaism does not have a regular periodical.

Mr. BONKER. I am sorry to interrupt because your statement is so eloquent and moving. I only have a few minutes to vote.

The subcommittee will have to stand in recess for approximately 15 minutes and then we will return and pick up where you left off. [Recess.]

Mr. BONKER. The subcommittee will reconvene. We were in the process of hearing from Dr. Korey. You were making the distinc

tion between the various degrees of persecution that exist in the Soviet Union.

Mr. KOREY. Right. I was elaborating upon the distinction between Judaism and other major religions in the Soviet Union in terms of the absence of a central or federated body which makes for the absence, for example, of any periodical to be produced by Judaism. It makes for fragmentation and a high degree of vulnerability. It makes for the absence of any kind of religious contacts with the religious communities abroad.

For example, the Russian Orthodox are part of the World Council of Churches or the Baptists in the Soviet Union are part of the World Baptist Congress; the Muslims are part of the World Muslim Congress. Soviet Jewry is permitted no religious contacts with their faith abroad.

There is, further, an absence of religious schools in terms of the training of rabbits. Mr. Goodman already elaborated on the fact that in the Soviet Union a yeshiva for the training of rabbis was created in 1957 and today it is virtually extinct; it doesn't have a single student studying for the rabbinate. You have this kind of irony, Mr. Chairman. The Soviet Union, a great power with 21⁄4 million Jews, doesn't have a single place for the training of rabbis, while tiny Hungary with only 80,000 Jews has 4 students from the Soviet Union studying to be rabbis.

This is the height of irony and tragedy.

The number of synagogues in the Soviet Union has been reduced to a virtual nullity. That is to say if there were thousands on the eve of the revolution and officially in 1926 there were 1,100 synagogues and as late as 1956 there were 450 synagogues; today there are little more than 50 synagogues.

There are more synagogues in Hungary than there are in the Soviet Union. The number of rabbis has also diminished to virtually very, very few.

By the way, in terms of the number of synagogues in the U.S.S.R., of some 50, one-half are in areas where there lives a very tiny percentage of Jews of the Soviet Union. These are Georgia, Dagestan, and Central Asia. Only 10 percent of the Soviet Jewish community lives in these areas but one-half the total number of synagogues are located there.

What complicates the problems and makes the matter even worse, Mr. Chairman, is the extraordinary assault upon Judaism. It boggles the mind to see the kind of propaganda campaign against Judaism as distinguished from the campaign against any other religion in the Soviet Union.

A bibliographical study completed a decade ago showed that the number of books and pamphlets attacking Judaism constituted 9 percent of all the works attacking religion in the Soviet Union, and Jews constitute less than 1 percent of the population.

The number of copies of books attacking Judaism was seven times as great as the number of copies of books attacking Islam and twice as great as the number of copies attacking Christianity. What distinguishes this assault is a virulent anti-Semitism. Judaism is presented as far more harmful and reactionary than any other religion in the Soviet Union.

The sacred works of the Torah and Talmud of the Jewish people are singled out for a host of canards. The Torah and the Talmud are said in the major works published in the Soviet Union to preach racism, hatred, and violence. The basic concept of the Jewish people-the "Chosen People"-this concept is presented in the most scurrilous and distorted and falsified manner possible.

An example is a major book published a couple of years ago, in an edition of 200,000 copies, Mr. Chairman, that is one of the biggest editions of any book published in the Soviet Union. It is called "Invasion Without Arms." Published is 1977 and 1980, the book calls the Torah a textbook unsurpassed in bloodthirstiness, hypocrisy, treachery, perfidy, and degradation, all the basic human qualities.

This kind of anti-Semitic campaign is in violation of international law and it is in violation of international treaties to which the Soviet Union is a contracting party, whether it is the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination or the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

In addition, there has been an assault upon that which constitutes the very foundation of Judaism, namely, the language of the Bible, Hebrew. Hebrew lives in a kind of netherworld. While it is officially recognized as a language and is taught in various places in the U.S.S.R., at the same time Jews cannot study it. There are no Hebrew schools, no officially recognized Hebrew classes.

Where Jews have organized private "ulpanim" to study Hebrew, there private classes have been subject to endless harassment and intimidation. Hebrew teachers are warned, threatened with arrest, and in some cases trials. In one case a Hebrew teacher was sent to Siberia for 2 years on the charge of parasitism.

It is the evisceration of all Jewish culture and Jewish life whether in the form of Yiddish or Hebrew. There is the total pulverization of Jewish community life. This too is in violation of international agreements, Soviet-signed agreements, whether the UNESCO Convention, against discrimination in education, the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights or the Helsinki Final Act.

For Soviet Jews, it is more than an abridgement of international law and international treaties which is at stake. Deprived of Jewish cultural facilities, restricted in effective and free access to Judaism and Jewish tradition and confronted by a deepening antiSemitism they are today almost totally prevented from emigrating and being reunited with their families and kin in Israel.

In the words of 130 leading Soviet Jewish activists in a desperate plea sent last year to the Soviet Party Congress, they said that they faced the threat of a national catastrophe; a more desperate cry has not been heard in recent Jewish history.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.

[Mr. Korey's prepared statement follows:]

PREPARED STATEMENT OF DR. WILLIAM KOREY, DIRECTOR OF INTERNATIONAL POLICY RESEARCH, B'NAI B'RITH

Mr. Chairman:

I am pleased to appear before this Subcommittee, which has contributed so significantly to the advancement of human rights, to discuss the condition of Judaism in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. That area had been the heartland of modern Jewry and served as a seminal source of the creative intellectual and cultural achievements of contemporary world Jewry. The Holocaust liquidated the bulk of the area's population even as it dissipated much of its priceless culture. What remains are four tiny Jewish communities in Poland, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia; two small communities in Romania and Hungary; and the large community in the USSR.

The tragedy is that the remnant of a once-great and flourishing culture is rapidly disintegrating. Anti-Semitism and expulsions in some parts of the area during the post-war epoch have reduced the numbers still further. Demographic factors will, within a generation or two, probably eliminate the tiny communities entirely and reduce significantly the small communities. A policy of forcible assimilation conducted by the Kremlin may exert a similar impact upon the Soviet Jewish community.

The guidelines for evaluating the religious and cultural rights of Jews in Eastern Europe are found in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, specifically Article 27, which stipulates: "In those states in which ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities exist, persons belonging to such minorities shall not be denied the right in community with other members of their group to enjoy their own culture, to profess their own religion or to use their own language."

The condition of Judaism varies in each of the Communist countries of Eastern Europe other than the Soviet Union. In some, its status is virtually non-existent; elsewhere it is, to some extent, thriving though by no means flourishing. Still all have some kind of central structure, secular in some places, religious elsewhere and frequently intertwined. But the structure permits a semblance of Jewish life even in the face of disintegration which prevails in tiny communities. The status of Judaism in each will be sketched separately and in broad strokes.

If a certain modicum of Jewishness prevails in each, especially in the larger communities of Hungary and Romania, it can be asserted that generally in several ways these countries fulfill to some degree, even if extremely modestly, the obligations imposed by the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in Article 27.