We were certain that America's doors would be open to us when we landed in our new home because of wise American leadership, which understood inviting Soviet Jews to emigrate to the United States was a foreign policy boon during the Cold War. America's refugee policy dramatized desperately lacking religious freedom in the USSR, it encouraged the activism of local human rights groups, and it created a terrible brain drain for the country. Encouraging Jews to get out and welcoming them as refugees helped hasten the Soviet Union's collapse.
That policy was crafted by conservatives, who understood that American power depended on a humane refugee policy. It is a lesson worth remembering today as we fight the war on terror.
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