Persecution in Russia
Sir: In his article (`The flight from paradise', 14 March) Bohdan Nahaylo suggests that two-thirds of the Jews who have left the USSR since 1970 have preferred not to settle in Israel. In fact, of the quarter of a million Jews who have left about 160,000 or more than three-fifths are now living happily in Israel.
We were, of course, delighted that Iosif Mendelevich was released last month but we have been actively campaigning for Yuri Fedorov and Alexksey Murzhenko (not Oleksander) since our inception and we have been attempting to persuade nonJewish sympathisers to join us in this campaign. As Mr Nahaylo reminds us, there are many other Soviet citizens being persecuted for various reasons in the USSR. We feel very strongly that Christian Churches throughout the world should give more active support to Soviet Christians who are in trouble because of their religious beliefs and we are disappointed by their failure to publicise the plight of their co-religionists.
In the last few months there have been many reports of arrests and prosecutions against Christians and those working against psychiatric abuse but there has been little response from human rights workers in the West. The plight of Soviet Jews is somewhat different from that of other Soviet citizens because the Soviet authorities have recognised Israel as being the Jewish homeland. They have agreed that Jews who are invited to Israel should be allowed to emigrate but, in fact, they are now restricting exit visas more severely than they have done for several years and the number of refusals is increasing week by week. Despite the Madrid review of the Helsinki Agreement the Soviet violations of this Agreement have increased throughout 1981.
Rita Eker Margaret Rigal
Women's Campaign for Soviet Jewry, 148 Granville Road, London NW2
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