Only 104 Soviet Jews were permitted to leave the Soviet Union in October, according to the Coalition to Free Soviet Jews. This brings the 1986 Jewish emigration total so far to 735. In 1984, only 896 Soviet Jews were given permission to leave, and last year, 1,140 were granted exit visas. In 1979, 51,320 Jews were permitted to emigrate from the Soviet Union, which means the drop-off in emigration over the last seven years is more than 98 percent.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.