Speech #910339617

I am proud to be a cosponsor of the resolution reported from the House Foreign Affairs Committee. "Concerning the Continued Injustices Suffered by Jewish Citizens of the Soviet Union." The harsh sentences meted out in the recent Leningrad "show trial is but another dark chapter in the long history of injustices suffered by Soviet Jews. Although the charge against the 11 defendants in the Leningrad trial was "treason." their only real crime. as one of them put it. was that "they were born Jews and wished to remain Jews"something which. for all practical purposes is impossible in a state which not only severely limits the right to worship. but which is notorious for its persecution of its Jewish citizenry. To compound the frustration. despair and persecution is the further denial of the right to emigrate. a right recognized by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The Soviet Union has repeatedly and heartlessly denied all requests by Jews to return to their Israeli homeland. As a consequence.