Speaker. I rise today to highlight an issue that is of great importance to all those who believe in freedom of religious thought and human rights: Soviet Jewry. The persecution of Jews in the Soviet Union. who simply wish to be allowed to emigrate and practice their religion in peace. is a tragedy by all measures. The emigration figures alone are enough to cause great concern. In recent years. the number of Jews who have been allowed to emigrate from the Soviet Union has been reduced to a trickle. with only 652 people receiving permission to emigrate from January through August of this year. The figure is in sharp contrast to the emigration high in 1979 of 51.320 people. While the emigration numbers are devastating. of greater concern is the rising tide of open antiSemitism within the press coupled with increased efforts to eliminate all Jewish cultural activities. Of particular concern is the recent arrest of four Hebrew teachers. Alexander Kholmiansky.
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