David M. Blumberg, president of B’nai B’rith, described today as “an incredible form of extortion” Soviet requirements for imposition of “exit fees” as high as $20,000 on Soviet Jewish scientists seeking to emigrate. He said the Soviet Union “takes pride in its system and society” and he asked how it could “justify making hostages of its citizens, exacting a ransom when they seek to exercise a basic human right to emigrate freely, a right guaranteed by the Declaration of Human Rights.”
He added that “the ransom technique,” coming at a time when the Soviet Union was moving toward more co-existence with the West, “calls for firm public and diplomatic protests” to remind Soviet leaders of “the harm this policy will do to its relations with the peoples of the world.”
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.
