Jew policy criticised

Press, 9 June 1980, Page 9

Jew policy criticised

NZPA-Reuter Paris European parliamentarians attending a conference’ ’ on the treatment of Jews in the Soviet Union have accused the Soviet authorities of growing anti-Semitism. .. ■' ' Jews allowed to leave the Soviet Union had fallen dramatically' since October last year, a Swedish socialist deputy, Anita Gradin,’ told the meeting, which was held in preparation for the Madr-

id European Security Conference in November.

She said, many Jews in the Soviet Union were only allowed to emigrate to Israel if they had close relatives there.-

in Geneva, a main refugee resettlement organisation reported that the number of JeWs leaving the Soviet Union had fallen to its lowest' in nearly two years. The Intergovernmental Committee for European Migration said 1976 Jews emi-

I grated last month, the lowlest total since July, 1978, but it gave no explanation for the drop. A British Conservative member, Mr - Ivan Lawrence, told the conference that Soviet authorities were denying Jews the right to a separate cultural identity.

He said the Soviet Union had made very limited concessions to Jewish demands for the right, to learn Yiddish, Hebrew and Jewish history. .