The first international Conference on Soviet Jewry to be held in Jerusalem, opening here March 15, will be attended by delegates from 31 countries around the world, it was announced by Avraham Harman, president of the Israel Public Council for Soviet Jewry at a press conference yesterday.
He noted that the two previous world conferences on Soviet Jewry, held in Brussels in 1971 and 1976, were followed by a marked rise in Jewish emigration from the Soviet Union and it is hoped that similar results will follow the third conference. But Harman made it clear that Soviet emigration policy will have to change first.
CITES PURPOSE OF THE CONFERENCE
He said the purpose of the conference is to demonstrate that the plight of Soviet Jews is an international issue that will not be forgotten.
“From the outdown of emigration from the Soviet Union of Jews from 51,000 in 1979 to a paltry few thousand in 1982, it seems the Russians think that if they continue with this policy, the problem will get easier and that people will forget it,” Harman said. “People are coming to Jerusalem from 31 countries in order to demonstrate to them (the Soviets) that people will not forget it.”
According to Harman, present estimate is that there are 2.5 million Jews in the USSR of which number 400,000 have requested and received invitations from relatives in Israel so that they can begin the emigration process. But they have not been granted exit visas. About 7,000 of these Jews are known to be refuseniks, meaning Jews who have applied for visas but have been denied them.
Harman said, “The only way this matter may be put to rest is for the Soviet Union to honor its obligations. It is obliged under the Helsinki Final Act to give Jews the right of free movement; to give them the right to be reunited with their families; to give them the right to cultivate their culture and their language,” Harman said.
The conference will be attended by, among others. Premier Menachem Begin; Simone Veil of France, former President of the Parliament of Europe; former Jewish prisoners in the Soviet Union; former refuseniks, relatives of refuseniks and Soviet Jewry activists.
Harman stressed that the conference is being convened in Jerusalem to emphasize the solidarity between Israel and the Jews of the Soviet Union.
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