Speech #1000006742

I am pleased to join my distinguished colleagues from New York. Congressmen MRAZEK and GILMAN. for todays special order recognizing the continued struggle of Soviet Jews. The Soviet Government has denied visas to hundreds of thousands of Soviet Jews seeking to be reunited with their families. Despite General Secretary Gorbachevs new policy of "Glasnost" or openness. the chances for freedom for Soviet Jews appear more dismal than ever. On January 1. Mr. Gorbachev instituted a new emigration law with the stated purpose of clarification and simplification. Under the new law. only firstdegree relatives. such as parents. children. and siblings. are eligible for permission to emigrate. This decree effectively prevents thousands of Jews from ever applying for. much less receiving. visas. In 1986. Jewish emigration from the Soviet Union totaled only 914. a 20percent drop from 1.140 in 1985. Despite Soviet gestures in a few highly visable cases. such as that of Anatoly Shcharansky and David Goldfarb. nearly 380.000 Jews await permission to emigrate. These are the brave men and women who. because of their Jewish faith. are singled out for harassment. arrest and imprisonment by the Soviet authorities. Mark Terlitsky is one such individual. A staunch leader of the refusenick community in Moscow. Mark Terlitsky and his wife Svetlana have been waiting to emigrate for 10 years to join his brother here in the United States. And there are many more Soviet Jews like Mark and Svetlana Terlitsky for whom the day of freedom remains a dream: My adopted prisoner of conscience Ida Nudel. Jacov Rabinovitch.