Speaker. I am delighted to have this opportunity to join with my colleagues and other members of the congressional coalition for Soviet Jews in the third annual congressional fast and prayer vigil for Soviet Jews. I will keep my remarks brief but I would note that the emigration figures tell us a dramatic story continuing repression and discrimination against Jews in the Soviet Union. According to a Congressional Research Service report. between 1968 and 1981 almost 260.000 Jews emigrated from the Soviet Union. Since 1981. however. less than 5.000 Soviet Jews have been allowed to emigrate. This figure fell to a historical low of less than 900 people in 1984. Jewish people are not being able to Join their families in Israel or here in the United States. and many more are being Jailed in the U.S.S.R. for their dissent. solely because of their request to let my people go. One of these people. Boris Chernobilsky. is the refusenik I have adopted: Background: Boris Chernobilsky and his family first applied for an emigration visa In 1975. After his request was denied in 1976. Boris lost his job.
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