There are certain moments in history where we as a civilization are put to the test.
Such a moment occurred during the Soviet Jewry movement, when thousands of American Jews did everything in their power to support brave dissidents. They struggled for the right to emigrate so that they could live out their lives in quiet dignity and religious freedom outside of the “Iron Curtain.” It was successfully used by Sen. Henry (Scoop) Jackson (D-Wash.), and Rep. Charles Vanik (D-Ohio), to expose the abysmal human-rights record of the Soviet Union and to link their trade with America to their ability to let the Soviet Jews leave for other countries.
This movement created the beginning of a fissure in the massive wall of fear that the Soviet Union had hid itself behind, despite the fact that they had already accumulated a formidable stockpile of nuclear weapons. Our ability to use the human-rights issue was one important factor that eventually led to the fall of what President Ronald Reagan had dubbed “The Evil Empire.”
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