Freedom of Movement

UCSJ remains committed to securing freedom of movement and the ability of Jews in the former Soviet Union to find safe haven in Israel and the West. To accomplish this, our FSU bureaus monitor emigration practice in the FSU and provide advocacy to refuseniks. In the United States, we advocate on behalf of Jewish refugees from the FSU who attempt to enter the U.S. to flee persecution in their home country, and we provide information to U.S. officials about continuing threats to Jews in the former Soviet Union.

UCSJ's Moscow Bureau continues to maintain and publish the only independent list of Russian and FSU refuseniks available. Moscow Bureau staff also monitor the activity of Russia's Interdepartmental Appeals Commission, a government body which reviews appeals by refuseniks.

UCSJ and its bureaus also assist in removing or evacuating Jews from potentially lethal situations. For example, during the 1995 Chechen War, Jewish refugees were initially unable to emigrate because they lacked necessary documents and the official OVIR emigration bureau in Chechnya was destroyed. UCSJ's Moscow Bureau staff convinced Russian officials to allow Jewish refugees to leave for Israel without passports and other official documents.

How You Can Help

The Union of Councils often is called upon to coordinate campaigns to raise public awareness and, via our Action Alerts, to generate public response to issues regarding immigration and refugee regulations, as well as, on behalf of individual refuseniks. Your response is needed to show support for our current campaigns.

• Find out what you can do on a current UCSJ campaign
• Click here to see a current list of Refuseniks

Go back to UCSJ homepage