Fifty Congressmen have begun a four-month vigil of three speeches weekly in the House to help bring to national attention the plight of Soviet Jewish families forcibly separated by the Soviet government.
Each week three Congressmen will read messages into the Congressional Record on behalf of as many specific families. Statements are now scheduled for every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday that the House is in session through July. As the names of more families become available, additional members of Congress will be asked to participate in the vigil.
Rep. Joshua Eilberg (D.Pa.), chairman of the House subcommittee on immigration, and Rep. Elizabeth Holtzman (D.NY), a committee member, opened the vigil yesterday with statements setting the purpose and theme of the vigil: to have the Soviet Union implement the commitment it made last year at the Helsinki conference to allow families to be reunited.
Rep. Sidney Yates (D.III) made the first appeal for a family today, asking that Felix Aronovich, an engineer in Leningrad, be permitted to reunite with his mother, Mrs. Lubov Dinenzin, and his brother Viktor, who were allowed to emigrate in 1974 and now live in Chicago.
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