ABSTRACT
The struggle on behalf of Soviet Jewish rights consisted of the demand that Soviet Jews be permitted to emigrate to Israel, that they be accorded equal rights in religion, education, and culture, and that there be an end to manifestations of anti-Semitism. Aliya from the Soviet Union was not on the cards, while the question of aliya from the East European People's Democracies. In December 1951 Israel made this demand for the first time in an official note to the USSR, maintaining that the return of the Jews to their historical homeland is the paramount mission of the State of Israel',. Israel's leaders sensed that Soviet Jewry was on the threshold of a physical and spiritual holocaust. The revival of anti-Semitism by Soviet and East European governments as a means of attaining political objectives should also be worrisome to the United Nations.
