THE VICE PRESIDENT WASHINGTON February 1, 1982 Mr. Theodore Mann Chairman National Conference on Soviet Jewry 10 East 40th Street New York, New York 10016 Dear Mr. Mann: I greatly appreciated the opportunity to meet with you and your colleagues from the National Conference on Soviet Jewry last Thursday. It was especially valuable to receive your update on the most recent developments in Jewish emigration from the Soviet Union. I fully share your deep concern and disappointment that the Soviet authorities have so sharply curtailed the number of people both members of your faith and other men and women of conscience who are permitted to emigrate. - - I would like to take this opportunity to reaffirm what I told you in our meeting. I want to assure you that I am personally committed, and I know that the President shares this deep personal commitment, to doing everything in our power to facilitate the free emigration of Jews and other people of conscience from the Soviet Union. The Soviet government's continued obstruction of the emigration of these people is an affront to the principles of human dignity and individual rights which we uphold. Assisting and facilitating the emigration of Jews and others who wish to leave the Soviet Union has been and will continue to be a matter of the highest policy priority for this Administration. I want to assure you that we will continue to pursue these emigration cases with every means at our disposal, both on an individual basis and as a principle of policy. As I told you last week, I stand ready to help in your efforts, particularly in connection with your projected conference this Fall, and I would welcome your suggestions as to how I might be of the greatest assistance. With all best wishes for the success of your efforts, Sincerely, George Bush STILL "THE PRISONHOUSE OF PEOPLES"1 It is by now a sad and predictable pattern. When the temperatures drop in EastWest relations, the locks freeze on Jewish emigration from the Soviet Union. In 1979, 51,320 Jews were allowed to leave, a record exodus in the postwar years. Last year, after Afghanistan and the advent of President Reagan, the number plummeted to 9,447. In Soviet diplomacy Jewish lives are a form of blood barter. There is no other plausible explanation for the erratic fluctuation in visas granted to Soviet Jews. Russia's Arab clients may be happier when the gates close, since half the 259,000 emigres since 1968 settled in Israel. But Arab sensibilities have not been a discernible factor. The pattern has varied only with Moscow's interest in catering to Americans. So when relations are bad, what can be done for these human pawns? Most vulnerable are 500,000 Jews who have registered their discontent by asking to leave. By requesting exit, they have lost jobs, privileges, and even educational opportunities for their children-yet they are still denied exit. Some of those then driven to express their frustration more overtly have also been tried on phony charges and sent to prison or labor camps. Even in the worst of times, Americans can speak out against this mistreatment of all who want out: Pentecostal Christians as well as Jews, secular as well as religious dissenters. At a minimum, Secretary of State Haig can add them to his roster of Soviet violations of human rights. And he ought to use every opportunity, like today's meeting with Foreign Minister Gromyko, to suggest that the treatment of human beings also counts the other way: Letting people out would do much to improve the Soviet reputation among free peoples. Permitting an orderly emigration and thus adhering to the Helsinki Final Act would not be just a favor to the United States. It would counter one of the oldest reproaches leveled at Russia. Even in czarist times, it was grimly nicknamed "The Prisonhouse of Peoples" because so many ethnic minorities were sealed inside. They are now persecuted more brutally than even Communists in czarist times. Yet the new jailers call themselves enlightened. BUSH PLEDGES FORCEFUL POLICY ON SOVIET JEWS1 WASHINGTON, Jan. 28.-Six leaders of major Jewish organizations met with Vice President Bush today to seek assurances that the Reagan Administration would strengthen its efforts in negotiations with the Soviet Union to allow the free emigration of Soviet Jews. Mr. Bush assured the delegation "that the President considers this matter to be the highest priority," adding, "I personally feel, and I know I am the heartbeat of the President on this, that the matter of Soviet Jewry is one matter we are not holding back on." Representatives from North America, Western Europe, Israel and Australia attending the meeting of the Presidium of the World Conference on Soviet Jewry expressed alarm at the sharp decline in the number of Jews being allowed to emigrate. The drop from a high of 51,000 in 1979 to 9,447 in 1981 prompted Leon Dulzin, chairman of the presidium, to speak of "beginning the struggle all over again. A longtime Congressional supporter of Soviet Jews, Senator Henry M. Jackson, Democrat of Washington, told the audience that "steady, determined effort" was needed "to prevent the trend to put emigration on the back burner" after the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan and the crisis in Poland. "STATEMENT OF PRINCIPLE" Mr. Bush suggested that perhaps the Administration could issue a "statement of principle. "We are not in such a delicate situation with the Soviets that we couldn't do something like that," he added. Theodore M. Mann of the National Conference on Soviet Jewry expressed the hope that the issue of Soviet Jews would "not become a matter of private diplomacy but of public action." Emigration figures show only about 300 Jews a month leaving the Soviet Union, while "harrassment of Jewish dissidents" is growing and Western interest lagging, the presidium reported. Meeting for the first time in the United States, it called for a world conference on Soviet Jews to be held in Western Europe 1 Copyright 1982 by the New York Times Company. Reprinted by permission. this fall. Next May has been designated "solidarity month" and a series of demonstrations and other events will be organized to demonstrate support for Soviet Jews wishing to emigrate. In an attempt to broaden Congressional support, individual members of the American branch of the World Conference sponsored a fact-finding trip_by_three Congressmen to the Soviet Union in the Congressional recess. Christopher H. Smith, Republican of New Jersey, James M. Shannon, Democrat of Massachusetts, and Sam Gejdenson, Democrat of Connecticut, made the trip to meet with Jewish dissidents. Representative Shannon said that the Soviet Union was misreading the mood in America. The fact that longtime Congressional supporters of Soviet Jewry, like Charles A. Vanik, have retired and that others, like Senator Jackson, are now in the minority party of the Senate merely underscored "the need for new members of Congress to go the Soviet Union and tell the Soviets that human rights is not an issue that will die," he said. Mr. BONKER. Thank you, Mr. Mann, for an eloquent statement. This subcommittee is primarily concerned in these series of hearings with the question of religious persecution. We heard the other day from witnesses concerning the plight of the Pentecostals and other Christians who are experiencing various forms of persecution in the Soviet Union. I imagine the Moslems are also experiencing institutionalized discrimination in the same way. I don't think any religion throughout the ages has experienced the degree of persecution that your particular faith has experienced. For example in the Soviet Union, we were informed the other day that the Russian authorities maintain an Orthodox Church which is state-sanctioned, state-run, and controlled that is really devoid of any spiritual influence. The people, if they want to practice their faith in the open, will be subject to various forms of sanctions, and some rather severe forms of persecution. But that even pales by comparison to what they are doing to the Jewish population. Could you give to this subcommittee some portrayal of what it is like for a Jew in the Soviet Union to attempt to practice his faith? Mr. MANN. First, let me say, Mr. Chairman, we have given you a prepared text, of course, which has a substantial section in it in respect of the question you have just asked. Mr. William Korey is one of your witnesses and he will also be talking especially on that subject. I want to ask Jerry Goodman, my executive director, to answer your question directly. Mr. BONKER. Let me say your full text will be included in the official record. STATEMENT OF JERRY GOODMAN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON SOVIET JEWRY Mr. GOODMAN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am sitting between two chairmen. So I will address both simultaneously. The problem if you will, or the difficulty of describing the disabilities of the Jewish community in the Soviet Union as Jews, is complicated by the fact that they are both a religious community and considered a national minority. So if we simplify it for the purpose of this hearing, we can say that as a minority, both religious and ethnic, national, or cultural, the whole series of disabilities, that anyone who wanted to be Jewish within that framework would find it virtually impossible. The few who do have to struggle against at least the followingas Mr. Mann cited, Hebrew is important, not only because it is the language of the State of Israel, but because it is the language of the Bible. It is the only language which historically has been the common property of Jews everywhere. Hebrew is under a virtual ban in the Soviet Union. While we cannot say that it has been outlawed, because we cannot find anything which would suggest that it is outlawed, there is no possibility for Jews as Jews to study Hebrew. In fact, the only places where Hebrew is taught as a language is really for officialdom or for people within the church; essentially for officialdom as undercover work. KGB agents can study Hebrew, but Jews cannot. It is done through a variety of administrative obstacles, and the testimony we have submitted will detail how it is accomplished. Regardless of how it is accomplished, the fact is there. Jews cannot study Hebrew. Therefore, young Jews who might wish to read the prayer books, even where they exist, cannot do so. So they have had to adapt. They study it illegally, surreptitiously, in informal study groups. They have managed in a way that even I don't understand-and I was there this past January and saw some of the Hebrew study sessions to develop a corps of people who are very fluent, but they know that any moment they can be arrested. Indeed, just last week one of the teachers of the Hebrew language was forced to withdraw from his activity not because he has been arrested, but because he faces the threat of arrest. Yuli Kashrovsky-a long-term activist-has dropped out of activities because of threats by the KGB. In terms of religion, if I were a young Jew and had a propensity to want to become more involved in the Jewish religion, it would be impossible institutionally. If I were over 18, it is legal; I can do it, but I can't if I am a Jew. There is no seminary, no place to be trained. The irony is that Soviet officials will tell us that there is a seminary and then also tell us that Jews who want to be rabbis have to study out of the country in Budapest, suggesting, of course, the very opposite of what they tell Westerners. There is no seminary. There are other disabilities. Prayer books are not published. They have to be brought in from the West. When they are allowed in officially, they remain stored, which means I have no access if I am a young Jew in the Soviet Union. I cannot have my child become confirmed or what we call become a son or daughter of the Commandment Bar or Bar Mitzvah. There is no possibility of my educating that child. That is clearly what the Soviet officials want. The long range probability is that under current Soviet policy under the present system, Jews, as a cultural minority and as a religious minority, will disappear, except for that hard core band, I suppose that somehow persists as Jews have persisted through the centuries. For the 2 million plus who might want it, access is not there. Mr. BONKER. Mr. Rosenthal. Mr. ROSENTHAL. Aside from the impediments to religious participation, what impact has there been on the lives of Jews in other arenas-employment, housing, politics, the military, the whole gamut of other things? Mr. GOODMAN. As you know, Mr. Rosenthal-and you have been a Congressman involved with this issue for many years-for all intents and purposes the military, the political establishment, the party hierarchy has long been closed to Jews. This goes back several decades, actually, and more recently we have found the restrictions tightening so that fewer Jews find opportunities in the higher education field. We find that in a number of institutions and it is a growing trend, but an alarming one, that they just can't get in or that the definition for acceptance is tighter for Jews than it is for non-Jews. Through nonwritten examinations that last many hours, whereas the ordinary Russian might take an exam that lasts 2 hours and is in writing; a Jew might have a 5-hour test which no one can document afterward so, of course, no evidence can be submitted to this subcommittee. The Jews don't make it. We have found that a number of other people who have applied for certain fields of employment cannot achieve those fields. They have been locked out. Again, if you take Mr. ROSENTHAL. Which fields of employment? Mr. GOODMAN. What Soviet authorities would consider to be very sensitive. The definition of security or sensitivity in the Soviet Union is much broader than ours. If you have worked in a factory that produced radar technology, but you were a clerk or perhaps even if you swept the floors, you would have in their definition access to sensitive material and therefore security risk. More and more of those job opportunities are being closed to Jews. If you can't study in the field of mathematics, let us say, where there is some evidence and some documentation, you cannot graduate into the field of mathematics; you cannot work in that field. Whatever opportunities might have been offered to you as a mathematician are now closed. We have also found a number of Jews are being punished who have had access to higher institutions in the past, have professions, but now are having their degrees taken away from them, which means they are becoming nonpersons in the educational and professional field. It means that those Jews who have had their degrees taken away from them in the last year can now have their work plundered because they don't exist; they are nonpeople. Since they have nondegrees, they don't exist as people in their profession. All of the work they produced can now be given to anyone else. In ordinary life that has not yet trickled down. You can use-to use the trickle-down theory, you can live where you want. There |