Mr. President. today I rise to speak once again on behalf of the Congressional Call to Conscience Vigil for Soviet Jews. It is truly unfortunate that we must mark another year with these statements to call attention to the continued difficulties faced by Soviet Jews who wish to emigrate. Since 1978. Members of the House and Senate have spoken out to remind our colleagues and our constituents of the thousands of Soviet Jews waiting to leave the Soviet Union. In the last year over 200.000 Jews have emigrated from the Soviet Union. and while the rate is increasing. there are still hundreds of thousands of Jews waiting to get out. Hundreds of families. for one reason or another. are still listed as refuseniks and we must work to draw attention to their cases and encourage a more liberalized emigration policy. In spite of the unprecedented events of the past month in the Soviet Union. we must not forget that thousands of refuseniks are still unable to emigrate freely. antiSemitism is on the rise. and the future of the Soviet Union raises serious questions about future emigration policies. Over the last few weeks the nationalist movements of the Ukrainian. Moldavian. and Central Asian Republics have spawned a rash of antiSemitic incidents.
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