THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS Jewish Groups Concerned by Low Soviet Emigration WASHINGTON (JTA) — The State Department, voi- cing "deep concern" over the large decrease in the number of Jews emigrating from the Soviet Union this year, pledged last week to continue efforts to convince the USSR to lift its restric- tions on emigration. "Our government is committed to making every effort to try to convince the Soviets to ease their restric- tive practices," Department deputy spokesman Alan Romberg said. He stated that the figures released in New York by the National Conference on Soviet Jewry and the Greater New York Conference on Soviet Jewry that only 2,670 Jews were granted exit visas in 1982, as compared to 9,447 in 1981, were "basically cor- rect." Romberg noted, however, that the State Department does not yet have the official figures for 1982. "Through the first 11 months of this year, 2,512 Soviet Jews emigrated from the USSR and the annual figure will undoubtedly be the lowest since 1970 when large-scale emigration first began," he said. The largest number of emigrants — 51,320 — was in 1979. "The severe constric- tion of emigration by the Soviet authorities in re- cent years is a matter of deep concern to the U.S. government," Romberg said, "and this concern has been communicated to the Soviet government at every level, both in public forums' and through ' diplomatic channels. "We regard the Soviet re- ductions in emigration as clearly contradictory to the principle of freedom of movement and family reunification contained in the Helsinki Final Act to which the USSR is a signat- ory." He added, "We knckw that there are still thousands of people in the Soviet Union who want to leave but have been denied that basic right because of procedural pre- texts or arbitrary decisions by Soviet officials." Theodore Mann, chair- man of the National Con- ference on Soviet Jewry, announced at the year's end that "deterioration in vir- tually all facets of Soviet Jewish life occurred" in 1982, most notably in the continuing drop in the number of Jews permitted to emigrate with Israeli visas. "This decline in emig- ration was accompanied by a wave of threats and arrests of Jewish ac- tivists, and the heightened oppression of Jewish culture and reli- gion," Mann reported. At the same time, he noted, "three Jewish prisoners, all of them active in emig- ration efforts prior to their arrests, completed their sentences." Mann said, "The total number of exit visas THEODORE MANN granted to Jews last year fell to over 2,600, represent- ing an unprecedented 95 percent drop from the 51,320 exit permits granted in 1979, the peak year for Jewish emigration. The nearly 110 visas issued to Jews who -arrived in Vie- nna, in December, marked the lowest monthly figure recorded since the current phase of emigration began in 1971. "These drastically low figures, at the year's end, left an estimated 400,000 Jews who ' have shown an interest in reaching their homeland with little hope for the new year," Mann said. Exacerbating this "tight- ening of the reins on emig- ration," Mann maintained, were several arrests of Jews seeking to leave for Israel, most recently Novosibirsk activist Feliks Kochubievsky, who re- ceived a 21/2 year labor camp sentence, and former POC Iosif Begun, who was exiled twice before, and was again arrested and threatened with an Unprecedented third trial and a long term in a labor camp. Mann observed that al- though former POC Evgeny Lein was re- leased from labor camp in mid-year, he too was threatened with re- arrest. "These • arrests and threats nurture fear among the refusniks throughout the Soviet Union — the fear that not only will the ful- fillment of their dreams of emigrating to Israel be stunted indefinitely, but that their lives will be con- stantly disrupted by the KGB (security forces) and by the misuse of the law practiced by Soviet authorities," he stated. According to Mann, 'The status of two Jewish POCs was altered significantly this past year," indicating "no change in the unending abuses inflicted on Jews al- ready suffering under the Soviet panel system." Anatoly Shcharansky, sentenced' in 1978 to 13 years of imprisonment, undertook a hunger strike in September to protest his isolation by the authorities. Sentenced in 1981 to three years in a labor camp, Alek- sandr Paritsky was trans- ferred in December to a strict prison environment as further punishment. "Although three Jewish POCs — Ida Nudel, Boris Chernobilsky and Vladimir Slepak — were released from labor camps "they are being punished again, and their futures are dim as they are thrust back into the emotionally and physi- cally - draining difficulties of refusnik life." Nudel, who left her Siberian exile in March following completion of a four-year term, was fi- nally granted permission to reside in Bendery (Moldaidan Republic) after nine months of wandering from city to city. Both Chernobilsky and Slepak returned to Moscow, after complet- ing their sentences of _one-year in a labor camp and five-years exile, re- spectively. Slepak, who in the late 1960s was one of the creators of the current emigration activities, had at one time been singled out by President Jimmy Carter for ,public recognition. He first applied to go to Israel in 1970. - Mann found the emigra- tion of several long-term re fusniks "a blessing, but, nevertheless, a vivid re- minder that the gates have UL FRANK, [... and His 014 ESTRA i fusal to allow him to receive . visits from his family, de- spite such allowances under the Soviet penal system. DUOS SOL !OS 557-7986! n: HARRY CUSTOM CLOTHIER ANNUAL JANUARY SALE 20% to 50% OFF Suits, Sport Coats, Slacks All Haberdashery 545-3558 13611 W. 9 Mile Harry ci.sTom OTIIIER you name it . • . move, show retire, about! you ould kn things you're tired, disgusted, sick, want to 1. Your practice is worth more than you think, Let us help you establish and receive the here are some important n buyers 'l month transition to it. s hould come to Going Concern Value" lot' list oi waiti g ull Proper allocation of areas the Sales price we for havespecial tax purposes financing, and a expertise. 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The producer of this cream cheese-and-lox fla- vored Edam was Nico Hammelburg, whose pro- grams specialize in the humor of ethnic minorities in The Netherlands — Turks, Moroccans, Guyanese or whatever. Hammelburg, who is Jewish, takes his subject seriously. The jokes were delivered by such international favo- rites as Myron Cohn, Robert Klein, David Steinberg, closed to over 10,000 refus- niks who pray that their re quests to emigrate will miraculously be approved and the gates will not lock them into lives of "oppres- sion." Among the long-term re- fusniks who received visas in 1982 were former POC Amner Zavurov, Shmuel Shvartsband, Zigmund Ro- zental, Grigory Freiman, Oleg Popov, and Vladimir and Hanna Magarik. • Meanwhile, the Peru- vian Senate has unanim- ously approved a resolu- tion supporting the im- mediate release from Soviet prison and free- dom to emigrate for Shcharansky, the World Jewish Congress re- ported. 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