Speech #980260516

These two events provide further occasion to remember the continuing plight of Jews in the Soviet Union. I want to join by colleagues in speaking out on behalf of Soviet Jews and sending a message to Minister Gromyko that we in Congress continue to view the fate of Soviet Jews as a critical issue. We are all too acutely aware of the sufferings of Soviet Jews who. year after year. have been denied permission to emigrate. We know that immigration has slowed to a mere trickle from its 1979 peak. with only 662 emigrants leaving the Soviet Union between January and August of this year. Mail to Soviet Jews from abroad continues to be intercepted. Further. there has been an increase in the offically sanctioned policy of antiSemitism in the Soviet Union. The press prints articles which are openly antiSemitic. Jews. including four teachers of Hebrew. have been arrested. Not only are Soviet Jews forbidden to emigrate. they must remain trapped in what is an increasingly hostile environment. I would like to draw special attention to a family denied the right to emigrate. Abe Stolar. his wife Gita. and son Mlkhail. In 1974 they received exit permits to emigrate to Israel. However. immediately before boarding the plane. the family was detained on the pretext that Mrs. Stolars work in a chemical laboratory 7 years before had exposed her to government secrets.