SANDER LEVIN. for the job he has done. Mr. Speaker. the figures on Soviet Jewish emigration for the year 1985 continue to tell a tragic tale. Compared to a high of 51.320 Jews allowed to leave the U.S.S.R. in 1979. the 1985 figures through the end of November total only 1.047. Meanwhile. an intensive campaign to destroy Jewish cultureeven more despicable and farreaching than previous effortshas landed seven Jewish activists and Hebrew teachers in Soviet jails and labor camps since September 1984. These "Prisoners of Conscience." who have joined many other Soviet Jews in the gulag. have first been victimized by a hostile and cruel state administration and an utterly warped judicial system. and then by a barbaric penal system. In one case. that of Hebrew teacher Yosef Berenshtein. inmates incarcerated with him recently beat and virtually blinded him. while his guards did nothing. For those Jews who seek to leave the U.S.S.R.. the Soviets have deliberately made every step in the emigration process extremely difficult. Instant dismissal from work and loss of other privileges is common. Nevertheless. some 350.000 Jews are estimated to have begun the emigration process. Of that number. more than 15.000 have had their requests denied by Soviet authorities. About 1.000 of these "refuseniks" have been waiting more than 5 years to leave.
Keywords matched
emigration