But far from Mr. Gorbachevs whirlwind tours of Europe. away from the pomp of superpower summits and seemingly overshadowed by the democratic stirrings of the East bloc. the Luries. and others. wait. I am encouraged by the increases in refuseniks being given permission to emigrate from the Soviet Union. In fact. it is estimated that as many as 60.000 Jews will emigrate from the Soviet Union this yeara substantial increase over the lowest levels only a few years ago. However. the measure of a societys freedom should not begin with those who have been lucky enough to benefit from the temporal whims of bureaucracyit should begin when there are no more Luries waiting. Mr. President. I commend the Call to Conscience Vigil for helping to raise our awareness of individuals fighting to be free. I believe that we must strongly support the right of all people to emigrate. Any Soviet restrictions on Jewish emigration are a flagrant violation of the international standard of human rights and freedom set forth by the Helsinki Final Act of 1975 and the Vienna Concluding Document signed just 6 months ago. In 1979 Emanuel Lurie and his family first applied for visas to emigrate to Israel. In 1980 the Luries received permission to leave the Soviet Union only to have that offer rescinded shortly before their departure. Since then the Luries older daughter.
Keywords matched
emigrate emigration visas