Speech #1000059554

Mr. Speaker. I rise today both to praise and to bring the attention of my colleagues in the House to the Israeli Refugee Assistance Program. Through this remarkable program. Soviet. East European. and other Jewish refugees entering Israel are able to spend 5 to 8 months. on average. adapting themselves to life in Israel. During this time. they learn to speak Hebrew. their children are able to start their education in special schools. they are given vocational training. and they become involved in various social. cultural. and religious activities. In short. when Israeli refugees complete this program. they do so. entirely selfsufficient. not as burdens of any sort on society. For the past 14 years. the United States Government. through the work of the United Israel Appeal and the Jewish Agency for Israel. has disbursed a total of $356.5 million in resettlement grants for this program. Today. the U.S. House of Representatives has shown its continuing support for the program by authorizing $25 million each for fiscal years 1988 and 1989 in the State Department authorization bill passed today. This money is a small part of the total cost of Israels refugee program. yet it is desperately needednot only to give sustenance to thousands of oppressed peoples and to aid Israels overburdened econor.y. but also as a signal to the Soviet leadership of our commitment to the plight of Soviet refuseniks. Indeed. the original purpose of this program was to help absorb the massive influx of refugees from the Soviet Union into Israel. Since 1971. more than 170.000 refugees have fled the Soviet Union to be resettled in Israel. Although the numbers of Jews leaving the Soviet Union had diminished drastically since 1979. a positive and dramatic upswing has begun this past January. The new Soviet leadership under Mikhail Gorbachev seemed determined to present a new image of the Soviet Union to the world. through glasnost. a policy of socalled openness. Crucial to this image is the plight of Soviet Jews. particularly the dissidents or refuseniks who desperately seek to emigrate to Israel. Although only 914 Jews were able to leave the Soviet Union in 1986. more than 1.600 Soviet Jews have been granted exit visas in 1987 as of the end of May. Soviet officials announced last March that 10.000 to 12.000 Jews are likely to rer ceive exit visas this year. If these estimates prove true. resettlement costs reach as high as $220 million. Aside from refugees from the Soviet Union. this program covers refugees from other areas of the world as well. including Eastern Europe. Asia. and Africa. Eight thousand Jews have left Romania since 1981.