Mr. Speaker. we honor today the thousands of Soviet Jews whose courage in the face of Soviet repression renews our faith that man is stronger than the State and that faith is stronger than man. The severity of their plightas demonstrated by the alarming 97percent decline in emigration since 1979 and the increase in government sponsored antiSemitic activitycasts an ominous shadow on the future of human rights in the Soviet Union. Against this grim backdrop. Congress has continued to raise its collective voice on behalf of Soviet Jewry. Resolutions have been introduced and adopted which call on the Soviets to honor their international human rights commitments. Others call on our own administration to press more actively for human rights improvements in the Soviet Union. Countless letters have been written by Members of Congress to Soviet authorities on behalf of individual members of the Soviet Jewish community who are in prison or who wait for the chance to emigrate. Members of Congress who have had occasion to travel to the Soviet Union have taken advantage of the opportunity such trips provide to meet with refusenik families. These efforts must continue.
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emigrate emigration