Speech #980260537

Mr. Speaker. when President Reagan meets with Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko on Friday at the White House. the two men will certainly explore many issues. including ways to control the nuclear arms race and to ease United StatesSoviet relations. These critical issues must be addressed by the leaders of both superpowers. but there is another critical issue that must not be ignored by President Reagan and Foreign Minister Gromyko and that is the plight of the many Soviet Jews who are seeking to emigrate from the Soviet Union. In a letter to the Greater New York Conference on Soviet Jewry. President Reagan wrote: "I assure you of my commitment to do all that I can to ease the suffering of Soviet Jews and secure their human rights." If President Reagan is truly sincere about his commitment "to ease the suffering of Soviet Jews." he will raise this issue in his talks with Foreign Minister Gromyko. It is especially important that President Reagan raise this issue with Foreign Minister Gromyko because of recent developments in the Soviet Union. For the more than 400.000 Jews trying to emigrate from the Soviet Union. the situation has never been more bleak. In the first 7 months of 1984 only 652 Jews were permitted to leave the Soviet Union. this compares with 1979 when over 50.000 Soviet Jews were allowed to emigrate. Not only has emigration been effectively halted. but the Soviet Government has also stepped up its officially sanctioned campaign of antiSemitism in the press. Moreover. within the last month four refusenik Hebrew teachers have been arrested. This suggests that the Soviet authorities have undertaken a new campaign to eradicate Hebrew study in the Soviet Union.