Speech #960274770

Mr. Speaker. the plight of Soviet Jews concerns us all. The Jewish community in the U.S.S.R. suffers under increasingly restrictive emigration policies while official and unofficial antiSemitism grows more blatant. Evidence the Soviet preparations for the summer 1980 Olympics included a crackdown on Jews is one more strong reason for U.S. athletes and the athletes of all other free nations to boycott the Olympic games. Through this and other means. the United States must pressure and influence the Soviet Union to permit Jews to emigrate. The growing problems of Soviet Jewry are thoroughly detailed and documented in an excellent paper. "Jewish Emigration from the U.S.S.R. in 1979" by Elie Valk. director of the Soviet Jewry Research Bureau. As the paper notes. in 1979 Jewish emigration was at a higher level than any time since 1971 when Jews began to emigrate from the U.S.S.R. in sizable numbers. More than 51.320 Jews left the U.S.S.R. or about 4.200 each month in 1979. At the same: time. however. that actual emigration was at record levels. a decrease in the number of exit visas issued to Soviet Jews for future emigration was occurring. This is the result of the imposition by Soviet authorities of a growing nuniber of administrative obstacles to emigration. The Soviet Union has also introduced a demand for an invitation from a "close or first degree relative" as a first step toward emigration. For reasons explained by Elie Valk. this further discriminates against those who wish to go to Israel. While the Soviet Union has erected new barriers to Jewish emigration. it has also fostered and tolerated a rise in antiSemitism. Restrictions against Jews in higher education and job promotion have increased as have official and nonofficial physical and verbal abuse. This is a tragic situation which compels world concern.