Mr. Speaker. today I join a number of my colleagues to again bring the plight of the thousands of Jewish individuals barred from emigrating from the Soviet Union to the forefront of American concern. Currently in the Soviet Union. there are thousands of individuals forced to live their lives under the strains of repression. poverty. and injustice as a consequence of their desire to emigrate and be reunited with their families. Despite the release of such noted members of the Soviet dissident movement as Anatoly Shcharansky. Yuri Orlov. David Goldfarb. and the granting of permission to Andrei Sakharov to return to his home in Moscow after 7 years in exile. we can not be complacent about the Soviet Unions human rights record. Last year. the Soviet Government allowed only 914 Jews to emigrate. This statistic represents a 20percent decrease from the figure of 1.140 in 1985 and falls far below the high point in Jewish emigration51.000which occured in 1979. At this time. 380.000 Jews are awaiting word on their application to emigrate. One individual awaiting permission from the Soviet Government to leave is Dr. Benjamin Charny of Moscow.
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