Jewish education programs are being banned. and Jewish books and religious articles are being confiscated. The Soviet authorities prevent the Hebrew language from being taught. and of the many nationalities in the Soviet Union only Jews have no schools or classes of any kind. The trends in Jewish emigration are just as ominous. Emigration figures began to decline in the spring of 1980. in April 1980 Jewish emigration totaled 2.469. By December 1980 the figure had fallen to 889. The Soviet Government. in an effort to quiet its restive Jewish community. cynically increased emigration in February 1981prior to the start of the 26th Party Congress. The February figure was 1.407. up from 850 in January. However. Mr. President. the emigration level for October 1981 was 368. the lowest number since mass Jewish emigration began in the late 1960s. Mr. President. when it signed the Helsinki accords the Soviet Government pledged to respect the human rights of all its citizens and to ease its restrictive emigration policies. This concurrent resolution. which has been submitted in the House of Representatives by Congressman CHRIS SmEN. stresses that the Soviets have not honored these commitments and asks the President to express to the Soviet leadership the deep concern of the Congress about this matter. I urge the adoption of this concurrent resolution.*
Keywords matched
emigration Emigration