Gorbachev has been tantalizing those in the West who are seeking foundations on which to build a new United StatesSoviet relationship. Unfortunately. we have seen no indications that would lead us to believe that the 2 to 3 million Soviet Jews will benefit from the new liberalization policy. Maintaining congressional support for the cause of Soviet Jewry has become even more critical in light of the new developments in the Soviet Union which might lead members to assume that the Soviet leadership is addressing the emigration problem as well. My colleague. Mr. GILMAN. and I arranged this special order to highlight the plight of members of the Terlitsky family who have been trying to join their relatives in the West for over a decade. Tomorrow is the 50th birthday of Mark Terlitsky. a staunch leader of the refusenik community in Moscow. My colleagues and I have tried in a variety of ways for several years to convince the Soviet authorities to allow Mark and his family to emigratebut to no avail. We therefore gather today to take a vocal and public stand on this case and to once again urge the Soviets to allow the reunification of this family and all other families. Marks case is typical of the ordeals that refusenks must endure. Mark Terlitsky was an architect in Moscow for 15 years before he and his family applied to emigrate in 1976. Although Marks brother and his wifes sister were given permission to leave. Mark and his wife Svetlana were refused on the grounds that Mark knew state secrets: he had worked as an architect in Moscow and therefore had access to such classified information as the structure of the Moscow sewer system and the water supply sources for the city.
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