Mr. Speaker. I rise to notify my colleagues that New York will be holding a Solidarity Day for Soviet Jewry in New York City on Each year on Solidarity Sunday. 150.000 New Yorkers have gathered in support of the many Soviet Jews who have not been able to emigrate or to practice their religion freely. The event. which is sponsored by the Greater New York Conference on Soviet Jewry. is the largest annual rally in the world. The 11th annual Solidarity Sunday. on May 2. will begin with a noon march down Fifth Avenue. and will culminate in a rally in Dag Hammarskjold Plaza outside the United Nations Building. The march and rally vividly convey a serious concern for human rights that has not weakened with time. In 1981. the number of Jews permitted to leave the Soviet Union declined to the lowest point in the past 10 years. Only 9.447 Jews were permitted to emigrate in 1981. as compared to 51.320 in 1979. The emigration figures for the beginning of 1982 suggest that this year. the number may be even smaller. Last month. the total emigration of Soviet Jews was less than 300. The Jews in the Soviet Union are engaged in a daily struggle for survival. The Soviets have begun to blot out all Jewish activities through harassment. arrests. imprisonment. and official antiSemitism.
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emigrate emigration