I would like to commend Congressman PORTER and Congressman MRAZEK for their fine work in organizing the prayer vigil which is now in its fifth year. and for organizing with me this special order. I am pleased to be here. but also disappointed to be here. I am pleased to be here because we may never have a better opportunity to demonstrate to the Soviets our commitment to human rights and to free emigration. I am disappointed because. despite the encouraging words of glasnost. there is still a very pressing need to be here. Make no mistakethings are better this year than they were last year. 910 refuseniks were allowed out last month alone. only 4 less than were allowed out during all of 1986. But 910 is still only onefourth of the number of refuseniks allowed out every month during 1979. At the height of detente in 1979. some 51.000 Soviet Jews were granted exit visas. I call on Secretary Gorbachev to show that he is serious about glasnost by matching that figure. But even that. four times the present rate. is still a far. far cry from what the Soviets are bound to by the U.N.s Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The declaration states that. "Everyone has the right to leave any country. including their own." That means free emigration. free. and we will not rest until the Soviets allow that for: Every 1 of the 380.000 Soviet Jews who have indicated a desire to leave. For Lev and Marina Furman. whose. daughters name. Aliyah. means "the ascent to Israel." For Leonid and Judit RatnerBialy. denied visas on the basis of "secrecy" though Leonid hasnt had access to secrets since 1972. For Vladimir Tufeld and his wife Isolde. who suffers from a brain tumor that can be treated properly only in the West. For Isaac Tsitverblit. a refusenik for 14 years who recently had to divorce his wife so that she and their son could leave for the West.
Keywords matched
emigration visas