The State Department said today that there has been “a slight downturn” in Soviet Jewry emigration thus far this year and in the last two months of last year.
“Somewhat over 5000 (Soviet Jews) received exit permission so far this year,” spokesman Tom Reston said. “If that figure is accurate, it does represent a slight downturn over the same period last year. The slight downturn, I want to emphasize this was already evident in the last two months of 1979, he said. “To give you a standard of comparison the monthly total over the past 12 months was about 4200 departures a month.” (See related stories P. 4.)
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