Secretary of State George Shultz gave his “personal commitment” Tuesday to leaders of the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith that the question of human rights, including the right of Jews to emigrate and freely practice their religion, will be at the top of his agenda when he visits Moscow next month.
“We have told the Soviets, time and again, that significant sustained progress on emigration is critical to improving our relations in other areas. The Soviets may be beginning to understand that our commitment to this issue is not only a cornerstone of the approach of this President and this Administration, but that it also commands the broadest bipartisan support in the Congress,” Shultz told an ADL delegation which presented him with a volume containing the names of 11,000 Soviet Jewish refuseniks.
The telephone book-sized compendium, titled “A Uniquely Jewish List,” was compiled and is being distributed by the ADL to government, civic, religious and educational officials.
“We will continue to do our utmost to bring about a day when there will no longer be a need for such tragic lists of people in need of our help,” Shultz told the delegation led by ADL national chairman Burton Levinson and associate national director Abraham Foxman.
The Secretary of State noted that in addition to making it clear to the Soviets that “family reunification is vitally important, there is also a right to freedom of movement which applies whether or not someone has relatives in another country.”
UNDER NO ILLUSION
He observed that recently there has been an upturn in Soviet emigration figures. “During the first half of this month, over 200 Soviet Jews were allowed to leave the Soviet Union,” he said. “I would note, however, that this comes against a dismal backdrop of six years of very low levels of emigration. We are under no illusion that this modest rise represents a revolution in Soviet emigration policy.”
Shultz added: “We are glad that some Jewish Prisoners of Conscience have been released before the end of their terms. But we will not be satisfied until all of them are out of prison and until all Soviet Jews and other religious believers can practice and teach their faith freely, without fear of imprisonment or other penalties.”
The State Department also stressed Tuesday that while the number of Jews leaving the Soviet Union has been increasing, the Soviet government still needs to live up to its commitment on emigration under the Helsinki Accords.
CONFLICTING FIGURES PRESENTED
The figures so far for 1987 “represent progress, but there is still a long way to go,” Department spokesman Charles Redman said. He noted that 98 Jews left the USSR in January, 146 in February, and 214 during the first half of March. Redman said the average monthly total in 1986 was 75 while the highest monthly total last year was 126.
(In New York, the National Conference on Soviet Jewry said the number of Jews who had actually left this month through March 21 was 370. Soviet officials and Western diplomats in Moscow said that the number of those who had received permission so far this month to leave was more than 400. Last week, a Soviet official said in Washington that 10,000 to 12,000 Jews were likely to get exit visas this year.)
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