Persecution of World Jewry Probed by Congressional Panel

In an effort to stymie anti-immigration sentiment and shed light on the persecution of Jewry worldwide, Jewish experts and refugees from the former Soviet Union and Iran testified at a congressional hearing this week.

Painting a bleak picture of growing anti-Semitism and xenophobia amid economic hardship and the rise of ultranationalism in the former Soviet Union, witnesses implored members of Congress to keep America’s doors open to refugees.

“The situation reminds me of pouring lighter fluid on a pile of twigs and waiting for a lit match,” said Lenoid Stonov, a former refusenik and current director of the Union of Councils’ International Human Rights Bureaus in the former Soviet Union.

“I am sure that no open mass anti-Jewish pogroms have occurred thus far in the FSU only because of monitoring and attention to this problem from Western government, parliaments and grass-roots organizations,” said Stonov, who also serves as the president of the American Association of Russian Jews.

Tuesday’s sparsely attended hearing before the House International Relations Subcommittee on International Operations and Human Rights came as Congress is weighing immigration reform legislation that would limit annual refugee admissions to 50,000.

In 1995, the United States granted asylum to 110,000 refugees, including nearly 22,000 Jewish refugees from the former Soviet Union. A small number of Jewish refugees also arrived from Iran and various Eastern European nations.

Officials with Hebrew Immigration Aid Society and the Union of Councils, the group that arranged for most of the testimony, said the hearing also represented an opportunity for activists to lay the groundwork to renew legislation that relaxes admission standards for historically persecuted groups.

Under the legislation, named for its sponsor, Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) and due to expire in September, Jews, along with evangelical Christians in the former Soviet Union and some Southeast Asians, only have to show a “credible basis for concern” about the possibility of persecution, instead of proving “well-founded fears,” as is the case with other refugees.

Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Christopher Simth (R-N.J.), the only lawmaker to attend the whole hearing, said this week’s bus bombings in Israel show that “there is literally nowhere in the world where Jews are safe from hatred and violence.”

He also cited concerns over the spread of skinheads in Western Europe and the rise of ethnic politics in Central and Eastern Europe.

Urging that the plight of refugees should be a “top priority in American foreign policy,” Smith said, “We must remind ourselves, and then we must remind our government, that refugee policy is not just an inconvenient branch of immigration policy.”

At the hearing, Alla Gerber, a Jewish member of the Duma, the lower house of the Russian Parliament, from 1993 to 1995, told lawmakers here that those who promote anti-Semitism in the former Soviet Union continue to find “a receptive audience and active support in government offices, law enforcement agencies, the military and of course among the disenchanted population, especially the young.

“Throughout the country those responsible for anti-Semitic propaganda and calls to violence against Jews remain free and are allowed to continue,” she said.

Sergei Sirotkin, former deputy chairman of the Russian Commission of Human Rights under President Yeltsin, agreed with Gerber’s assessment.

“Anti-Semitism is a potent weapon in the political arsenal of leaders and parties playing a serious role in today’s political process,” said Sirotkin, who resigned in protest, along with four other members of the commission, after reporting and findings to Yeltsin last year.

He added, “Regrettably, there are serious reasons to believe that the problem of nationalist extremism and anti-Semitism will remain acute in the near future.”

While the hearing primarily focused on the plight of Jews in the former Soviet Union, some of the most startling testimony came from a Jew recently rescued from Iran.

“The government-sponsored anti-Semitic propaganda campaign has intensified,” and become “even more intense as the Arab-Israeli peace process is gaining momentum,” said the Iranian Jew, whose testimony was read by a HIAS official.

The Iranian Jew, who was scheduled to testify under a pseudonym, did not appear at the last minute, for security reasons.

“I was frequently hit in the face to encourage me to talk,” according to the testimony of the refugee, who served two years in an Iranian jail as an accused spy. “I was frequently threatened with execution.”

“The Jewish community is being gradually excluded from any possibility of further existence in Iran,” he said, referring to the estimated 25,000 Jews who remain in Iran.

Between 25 and 50 Jews are exiting Iran through secret channels each month, according to officials involved in the process.