Speech #980162431

For years we in Congress have spoken against and written about the predicament of thousands of Soviet Jews whose only crime is seeking religious freedoma basic tenet of our American democracy. It therefore seems inconceivable to me that the plight of Soviet Jews today is as severe. if not more severe than in previous years. Jewish emigration has plunged considerably over recent years. From a peak in 1979 of 51.320 Jews allowed to emigrate from the U.S.S.R. to 1983s Jewish emigration rate of 1.314. there was a dramatic drop of 50.016 people in just 4 years. This is not an indication that there has been a decrease of Jewish requests for visas to leave the Soviet Union. On the contrary. requests for emigration have increased. It is the official permission to emigrate that has diminished at an alarming rate. Soviet emigration officials. in attempting to lessen the number of Jews leaving the U.S.S.R.. have begun new and unusually stringent restrictions on accessibility to emigration visas. Now visa applications are rendered invalid after 6 months. As during that time Soviet bureaucratic wheels barely begin to turn. the applicant is forced to repeat the lengthy often humiliating procedure numerous times. Passage of such laws as the redundancy law and the parasite law have placed Soviet Jews in a no win cycle. The situation follows like this: a Jew first seeks a visa. As a consequence he/ she loses their job. The aforementioned laws make it illegal for a citizen to be unemployed for over 2 months.