Imprisonment on false charges occurs often. Yet. despite the overwhelming evidence. the Soviets continue to deny that a problem exists. The emigration of Soviet Jews has sharply dropped from a high of 51.320 in 1979 to only 1.140 in 1985. Thousands of cases still remain unresolved with many families being kept away from their loved ones. Vladimir and Efim Feldman. whose mother lives in Queens. NY. have been applying to emigrate since 1973. The longest waiting period for any current refusenik is held by Beniamin Bogomolny. who first applied to emigrate in 1966. He was denied permission on the grounds that he was a security threat as he had served in the army. And Alexander Paritsky. on whose behalf I have worked for many years. applied to emigrate in 1976. He was finally released from an internal prison cell in a labor camp. but his health is in question as he has suffered two heart attacks. one of them very recently. For many years now I have worked in Congress to help those who desire to emigrate do so. During my visit last year to the Soviet Union. I met with General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev and brought up the plight of the Soviet Jews.
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emigrate emigration