[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 117 (Monday, September 19, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Page S10185]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       TRIBUTE TO YAKOV BIRNBAUM

 Mr. LIEBERMAN. Mr. President, I pay tribute to the 
contributions of Yakov Birnbaum, an unheralded American freedom 
fighter, whose work helped free roughly five million Soviet Jews and 
tens of millions others persecuted for their faith under the former 
Soviet Union.
  In 1964, Birnbaum launched the Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry at 
Columbia University to promote awareness of the persecution of Jews in 
the Soviet Union. His movement ultimately led to the passage of the 
pivotal Jackson-Vanik Amendment a decade later, which starved the 
Soviet government of trade benefits in retaliation for its trampling on 
human rights.
  Birnbaum's efforts led to freedom for individuals like Natan 
Sharansky and the emigration from the Soviet Union of more than 1.5 
million Jews since. His work also inspired other individuals, 
organizations and governments to decry the persecution of people of 
faith by the Soviet government.
  By drawing international attention to repression within the Soviet 
Union, Birnbaum helped remind us all that the defense of human rights 
and the freedom to worship had to be battleground issues in the Cold 
War. The final fall of the Soviet system and the flowering of religious 
freedom that followed were both thanks to the long and tenacious 
efforts of men and women like Birnbaum.
  For all his work in the cause of freedom we recognize him 
today.

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