ABSTRACT
Soviet Jewish emigration became a problem for US-Soviet relations at the end of the 1960s. Increasing numbers of Soviet Jews wanted to leave the Soviet Union. For example, the number of Jews obtaining exit visas increased from 229 in 1968 to 2,979 in 1970, though, of course, the number of exit visas granted, nowhere near reflected the number of Jews wanting to emigrate. 1
The swift and decisive Israeli victory in the 1967 Arab-Israeli War stirred pride in many Soviet Jews and probably inspired some to make the decision to emigrate to Israel. Also, many Soviet Jews wanted to join relatives who already had settled in Israel and other countries in the West in the wake of the Holocaust. But, the primary reason for Jews wanting to emigrate was to escape an increase in officially sanctioned and pervasive discrimination in almost all walks of Soviet life - education, employment, and in the practice of their religious and cultural life - which under the Brezhnev regime (1964-82) was particularly harsh. At that time, officials criticized what they termed 'the over-concentration of Jews in the scientific and academic professions' and restricted the admission of Jews to universities. The number of Jews entering universities declined from 112,000 in 1968 to 105,000 in 1970, 88,500 in 1972, and an estimated 50,000 in 1980.2 Finally, many Soviet Jews had become pessimistic about the future. They were convinced that discrimination at home would be permanent and that there was little they could do to improve their situation in the Soviet Union except to emigrate.3
