Mr. Speaker. I am joining my colleagues in this years call to conscience vigil to bring attention to the plight of Soviet Jews seeking freedom of religion and the right to emigrate from the Soviet Union. I share the concerns of all freedom loving people over the plight of Soviet Jews. I have expressed this concern by urging the Soviet authorities to adopt a more flexible policy on emigration and to live up to those basic international standards of human rights spelled out in the Helsinki accords and other documents to which the Soviet Union is a signatory. Time and again. I have written Soviet officials to urge reconsideration of individual cases of refuseniks. from various cultural backgrounds. who were imprisoned for their religious or political convictions. Furthermore. I am concerned about recent unwelcome developments in the Soviet bloc such as increasing manifestations of officially sanctioned antiSemitism. persecution of both prominent and less wellknown refuseniks. and the continued downward trend in Jewish emigration from the Soviet Union. We must continue to raise human rights issues with the Soviets at every level and in many forums. I pledge my continued support of the U.S.
Keywords matched
emigrate emigration