Speech #980142464

Mr. President. despite international outrage. the Soviet Union has maintained its prejudicial policies toward Soviet Jews. Jews in the Soviet Union are discouraged from freely practicing their religious and cultural activities. and Soviet emigration policies for Jews have become dramatically more restrictive in the past year. In August of this year. I joined my distinguished colleagues in sending a letter to Soviet Chairman Yuri V. Andropov. urging him to reverse the current restrictive emigration policies of the Soviet Government. Despite this. and other expressions of concern. the situation in the Soviet Union has remained the same. The Jewish population of the Soviet Union is the third largest Jewish population in the world. only the Jewish populations of Israel and the United States are larger. Against all evidence to the contrary. the Soviet Government contends that the majority of Jews wishing to emigrate from the Soviet Union have already done so. If this were the case. why are there thousands of cases of individuals who have been denied the right to emigrate from the Soviet Union? In 1979. 50.000 Jews were allowed to emigrate from the Soviet Union. but in 1983. a mere 3.000 Jews will be granted exit visas. This drastic drop in emigration only underscores the current state of Soviet repression. Religious freedom is a doctrine upon which our country was built and for which the United States has always fought. It is for this reason that I join the Jewish Federation of Rhode Island in condemning Soviet intransigence on the question of the emigration of Soviet Jews. Mr. President. this matter is of great concern to my State and the Nation as a whole. The Council of Synagogues of America in conjunction with the National Conference on Soviet Jewry has declared the week of December 2 through December 9. 1983. a week of recognition for the plight of Soviet Jews wishing to emigrate from the Soviet Union. The Womens Division of the Jewish Federation of Rhode Island has joined these two organizations in urging all of us to remember this deplorable situation during that week. I ask unanimous consent that the letter from the Womens Division of the Jewish Federation of Rhode Island to me be inserted in the RECORD at this point.