Mr. Speaker. as a member of the congressional coalition for Soviet Jews. it gives me great honor to participate in todays fast and prayer vigil for Soviet Jewry. The rate of Jewish emigration in 1984 was the lowest since 1970: only 896 Jews were allowed to emigrate to Israel. At the same time there was an increase of attacks on Jews still living in the Soviet Union. The teaching of Hebrew. Jewish history and culture has been drastically repressed. And when Jews attempt to teach it they are harassed by the authorities and sometimes physically beaten. Unfortunately. when Jews attempt to emigrate to Israel. they often lose their jobs or are expelled from school. publicly denounced. and their homes are often illegally searched. Their dream of living in the Jewish state is denied and they become one of many socalled "refuseniks". One such man is Mark Ocherentyanksy. He is a construction engineer who applied for visas for he and his wife to emigrate to Israel in 1981. At first. proceedings went along smoothly and they disposed of their personal belongings. as they are suppose to. including their internal passport. However. in the final steps of applying. they were denied their visas and could not emigrate. As a sign of protest they did not apply for new internal passports. Mark was then arrested in October 1983. for violation of passport regulations and sentenced to 1 year in labor camp.
Keywords matched
emigrate emigration visas