Speech #970246942

Speaker. I rise in strong support of House Concurrent Resolution 330. reiterating once again the concern of the Congress on behalf of Ida Nudel. This brave Jewish woman. an economist by profession but known to so many of us as the "Guardian Angel of Soviet Prisoners of Conscience." has for 11 years sought to emigrate from the Soviet Union. For her efforts she has suffered harassment. interrogation. surveillance. and finally arrest and 4 years of internal exile under the harshest of conditions in Siberia. Because of the extreme hardships she faced while in Siberia. living among hardened male criminals. she became an internationally recognized and respected symbol of the courage and spirit of the captive Jewish community in the Soviet Union. By one reported estimate she received more than 10.000 letters from Western supporters. Finally. this past March. she was released and is once again seeking to exercise her basic human right to emigrate from the Soviet Union. In spite of the past 4 years and the suffering she endured. the Baltimore Sun reported in March after her release that. "Miss Nudel was emphatic in saying that she does not regret her act and the price she was made to pay for it." She slso said: "I still want to emigrate. Not just still. but more than ever before." Over the past several years. the U.S. Government has taken an active interest in her case and has cited it at the Madrid CSCE Review Conference as a prime example of how the Soviet Union fails to respect the human rights provisions in the Helsinki Accords. U.S. officials have also raised her case through diplomatic channels. In official views submitted to the House Foreign Affairs Committee. the Department of State has assured us that "The name of Ida Nudel is included on the * * * official list of Soviet Jews who have been repeatedly denied permission to emigrate to Israel. Through periodic presentation of this list to high Soviet officials. we reiterate United States concern for their individual rights and welfare. Ms.