“A devastatingly low number of Soviet Jews — only 363 — were permitted to leave the Soviet Union during the month of November,” reported Charlotte Jacobson, chairman of the Soviet Jewry Research Bureau of the National Conference on Soviet Jewry.
“The drastic shrinking in the number of emigration visas granted,” stated Jacobson, “further validates the sharp change in Soviet attitude toward Jews and leaves the Soviet minority virtually helpless against the authorities’ campaign to virtually halt all emigration from the USSR. This would leave hundreds of thousands of Jews locked into a country which is increasingly hostile to them, as Jews.”
The November figure fell below October’s all time low of 368, and is expected to decrease further by the year’s end.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
