The Congressional Vigil is a chance for us all to join voices in protest against the gross violations of human rights in the Soviet Union. The freedom to choose ones place of residence and allegiance is the most basic and fundamental of civil liberties. To deny this rightas the Soviet Union has repeatedly done by refusing emigration visas to Soviet Jewsis to demand the attention and condemnation of free peoples everywhere. There are hundreds of Soviet Jews who currently find themselves in the unenviable predicament of being mistreated in their home country and yet not allowed to leave. Today I would specifically like to address the plight of one of these mena Evgenii Chudnovsky of Kharkov. Mr. Chudnovsky was a research physicist at Kharkov State University prior to applying for permission to emigrate in 1979. Mr. Chudnovsky had received an invitation to join his uncle in Israel for a "reunification of the family." Thus planning to relocate his family in the Holy Land. Mr. Chudnovsky applied for emigration visas for himself. his wife Marina. and their 9yearold daughter Yulia. The visas were denied to the Chudnovskys on the grounds of "insufficient kinship" with their relatives abroad. Since the time of his unsuccessful visa application. Mr. Chudnovsky has been barred from scientific libraries. forbidden to continue his physics tutorials. and banned from publication in any Soviet scientific journal.
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