Speech #980232401

I would like to Join my colleagues in support and participation of the 1984 Congressional Call to Conscience Vigil for Soviet Jews. It is unfortuante that the need for this call to conscience is so necessary. The Soviet Union has repeatedly ignored the efforts of public officials and citizens of the United States to adhere to the three international documents to which the Soviet Union is a signatory allowing the right of Soviet Jews to emigrate from the U.S.S.R. Emigration has plunged to its lowest level since 1963 with only 1.314 being able to emigrate in 1983. a 98percent decline since 1979. In addition. a Governmentsponsored antiZionist committee has been established in the Soviet Union recommending antiSemitic books and endorsing antiSemitic articles in state publications. Serious criminal charges as well as daily harassment against Soviet Jews have increased. We are in the midst of witnessing yet two more victims of the Soviet Governments inhumane and coldhearted policies in the tragic saga of Andrei Sakharov and his wife Yelena Bonner. We have been dismayed and frustrated during the past 8 years over one of the most famous refusniks. Anatoly Shcharansky. who is presently serving a 13year prison term for daring to speak out for individual human rights and wanting to emigrate to be with his wife in Israel. In my first term as a U.S. Member of Congress. I have sponsored three families. the Boris Ghinis family. the Mikhafl Kazanovich family and the Antanas Vausa family who. although are not all of Jewish descent. have still been denied the freedom to emigrate. Mr. Speaker. the Call to Conscience Vigil is to call attention to what is happening today in the Soviet Union. It is my fervent hope and prayer that a year from now there will be no need for this special vigil. that the Soviet Union will finally live up to the international documents it signed. that all of its citizens. regardless of their religion. will be allowed to emigrate if they desire and be free to practice their religion and their culture.e