Speech #1010156405

I would like to thank my colleagues. Representatives PETER KOSTMAYER and JOHN MILLER. cochairmen of the 1990 Congressional Call to Conscience Vigil for Soviet Jewry. for coordinating this effort. How ironic it is that glasnost for the Soviet Union. and soaring emigration figures for Jews leaving the Soviet Union. have unleashed the ugly forces of antiSemitism in the Soviet Union. Groups such as Pamyat and others openly speak of eliminating the Jewish presence from "Mother Russia." the infamous "Elders of the Protocols of Zion" is sold from bookstores. and prominent Soviet writers. invited by the United States Government to tour America. publicly espouse and defend antiSemitic canards and halftruths. accusing the Jews of the Soviet Union for many of the problems. past and present. that have plagued all of the Soviet peoples. Glasnost was certainly not meant to produce this antiSemitic reaction. yet this is what precisely has happened. and not only in the Soviet Union. but in Eastern Europe as well. Despite the record emigration numbers. and in light of the increasing tide of antiSemitism. it is vital that all those Soviet Jews who wish to leave. and all refuseniks. be allowed to do so. One such person is Dr. Irena Voronkevich of Moscow. She has been waiting for over 10 years to emigrate. and there is no conceivable reason why a 77yearold woman. a professor of botany who has not worked in a decade. should be denied a visa for what the Soviet authorities consider are security reasons. This woman has endured her share of suffering in her lifetime. Stalins police murdered her father in 1938. her husband fell on the battlefield in 1943. and she raised her son alone for those many years. He was a longterm refusenik. who with his family and her mother first applied for a visa in 1979. They were refused. and told to wait for 10 years. They reapplied in 1987. were turned down again. and told to wait until 1992 to reapply. Now. the date for application has been changed to 1997. In 1989. the son was granted a visa. but his mother was turned down again. Mr. Speaker. this worldrenowned botanist. who has published in the Soviet Union as well as abroad. does not present a threat to the security of the Soviet State. Her continued incarceration directly violates the Helsinki accords and the Vienna concluding document binding the Soviet authorities to the principle of freedom of immigration. I have written to President Gorbachev asking him to intercede in this case. to help allow this magnificent woman to live out the years she has left with her son and grandchildren. As much as we admire glasnost. we cannot lose sight of the fact that many Soviet Jews. such as Dr. Voronkevich. are arbitrarily denied their fundamental rights. We must. under current conditions. use all and every available means to assist those Soviet Jews who wish to emigrate from the Soviet Union.