their achievement of a successful resettlement. Their willingness to take hard and dirty jobs in order to be self-supporting, and their wish to conquer the obstacles of language and new customs, enhances the opportunity to become part of the American community; but they cannot fully do so without permanent residence.

In each of the many geographical areas where Cuban refugees have been resettled, there are similar accounts of their success in scholastic achievement, in industry, and as social beings. We have families with members who are professionals and the highly skilled, as well as business people, and all are working toward tangible goals related to their status and their capacity. Professionals and certain of the highly skilled need licensing to practice and this is not possible without permanent status and, in some instances, citizenship. The adolescent who must make career decisions early and hesitates because of the uncertainties of acquiring permanent residence is particularly affected. Scholarship programs available only to citizens place the Cuban refugee who is a promising college student at a disadvantage.

During the past 6 years, we watched fragments of families arrive and observed that they kept in close touch with the relatives who were to follow later. We were and still are concerned for those who have not been able to leave and wonder when this will be. We have spent many anxious moments during the period of separation of the unaccompanied children from their parents, and know that a number are still not reunited. However, most of the families we work with have become complete and the process of becoming part of America has really taken hold. Some of the young people we welcomed a few years ago have since married and are raising their own families of native-born children. From our observation, there is no thought of returning to Cuba-this is and will continue to be their home.

Although Cuban refugees are making a good adjustment in the United States, the knowledge that permanent status would be theirs in a given period of time would add significantly to the security they found with us. The psychological support they would derive from the knowledge that change of status is possible would reinforce their positive social adjustment.

Refugee-escapees coming to the United States from other parts of the world are permitted to apply for permanent status after the 2-year-residence period; the same privilege could be extended to the Cuban refugee. Although it is possible, in some instances, to obtain visas in Canada, this presents many technical problems and is costly in terms of time and money-both to the agency and to the persons involved.

The Freund family, who have accompanied us today to offer testimony relating to their resettlement experience, are able to describe their feelings as refugees. They are one of the few families who have been able to achieve permanent residence and it is not yet completed for their children. They are one of the many families who want both the privilege and the responsibility of permanent residence and citizenship. To have offered the Cuban refugees our country as a haven with us as their next-door neighbors, our help with the daily problems our schools, industry, community and recreational facilities is appropriate to their need. To withhold permanent residence and citizenship would indeed be bitter irony.

Working with the foreign born has reinforced my own dedication to the service of helping people. To be able to appear before you today and present this testimony has been an opportunity for which I am most grateful.

Senator KENNEDY. Mrs. Freund.

Mrs. FREUND. My name is Margaret Freund. I immigrated to the United States as a Cuban refugee in August 1961. My situation may be a little different from that of most Cuban refugees known to the Jewish Counseling and Service Agency, since they have known of me since July 1946, and the same caseworker has worked with my family since that time.

In 1946, my sister, who was a resident of Essex County, brought my situation to the attention of the agency. My husband and I, both born in Rumania, had hoped to immigrate to the United States after the war, to be reunited with my sister. Our relatives had all been killed by the Nazis and it was our hope to join the only relatives left in the world. However, it was not possible for us to come to the United States because of the oversubscribed Rumanian quota, and we immigrated to Cuba in 1948.

Although it was difficult at first, we were able to establish ourselves there, and we became Cuban citizens, and our two children were born in Cuba in 1948 and in 1953. Despite sporadic efforts to immigrate to the United States, quota barriers stood in our way.

It is not necessary to review the events which led to our refugee status, and our reunion with my sister and her family in 1961, through the generosity and help of your Government, our relatives, and the agencies United HIAS Service and the Jewish Counseling and Service Agency.

After our initial resettlement period, we began to work on obtaining permanent status and this was made possible because of our original registration dating back to January 26, 1948. This was successfully completed on December 6, 1963, when my husband and I obtained our alien registration cards and then really felt secure in our new country. Although we began applications for Canadian preview for our children, we decided not to continue with this, in the hope that legislation would be passed to benefit them. However, we have since activated their applications and are now awaiting appointments with the

consul.

My husband and I recently purchased a small business, my older son who is with me today, and will be happy to testify, is graduating from high school and has been admitted to college; my younger son, who is also here today, is in the seventh grade.

Although this has been a third country immigration for us, we have found a permanent home and know we will never have to seek a home alsewhere. Having permanent residence, however, gives us a strong feeling of attachment to a place in America. We are hopeful that one having given Cuban refugees a haven, your excellent committee will help them achieve permanent residence here.

I want to thank you for inviting me to appear before you. THOMAS FREUND. I reside at 110 Montgomery Street, Highland Park, N.J., with my parents and younger brother Ricardo.

I was born in Cuba, August 14, 1948, and immigrated to the United States with my parents and brother in August 1961.

I entered school in September 1961 and became active in the Boy Scouts and in the Y. My brother and I continued our Hebrew here and have had part-time jobs, after school and summers. At present I am saving for college, having been admitted to Yeshiva College in New York City, in the class entering September 1966. I am interested in becoming a mathematician and expect to do graduate work after completing college.

Senator KENNEDY. Could you tell me, Mr. Greenberg, there were, as I understand it, approximately 10,000 Jews in Cuba in 1960; is that about right?

Mr. GREENBERG. About that.

Senator KENNEDY. And now that number has been reduced to about 2,400 or 2,500?

Mr. GREENBERG. 2,400, something like that.

Senator KENNEDY. Have you been conscious of any kind of persecution of the Jews in Cuba, or is your organization unconscious of any of that?

Mr. GREENBERG. I don't think there has been any evidence of that. Senator KENNEDY. Other than just the general totalitarian aspects of the regime?

Mr. GREENBERG. Yes.

Senator KENNEDY. And the difference between the 2,500 and the 10,000 are actually the Jews who have come to this country; or have gone to Curacao?

Mr. GREENBERG. Most of them have come here.

Senator KENNEDY. You have settled, I guess, other families as well as in this area?

Mr. GREENBERG. That's right, Senator.

Senator KENNEDY. And how extensive has that been?

Mr. GREENBERG. Well, we spent last year $25,000 on resettling close to 20-some-odd families in various parts of the world. Most of them came from Europe, behind the Iron Curtain, those countries.

Senator KENNEDY. But you welcome and you are delighted to help and try to settle families, whether they are Jewish or Catholic or Protestant; is that correct?

Mr. GREENBERG. Yes, we support the resettlement of all families; we particularly have responsibility with HIAS in relation to Jewish families.

Senator KENNEDY. Let me say that I am delighted to have you here, and we are honored to have you and your two sons. Which one is the best student?

Mrs. FREUND. I think this one [indicating].

Senator KENNEDY. I want to say we are delighted to have you here. We appreciate it, and I think you provided useful information. I think all of the various counseling services, and voluntary agencies of the major faiths and others as well have really made an extraordinary contribution toward the resettlement of refugees, something that's not well known or appreciated, and I think it has been very, very heartwarming to see the wonderful achievements. I want to thank you very much.

Our last group this afternoon will be Dr. Ansley Van Dyke of the First Presbyterian Church, Toms River, N.J., accompanied by Rev. Gilbert O. Hemsley, of the Grace Church, Union City, N.J. They have

four refugees, I believe, with them. Would you please come forward and take the stand here with this group? This will be the final panel today.

Dr. Van Dyke, we are delighted to welcome you and also Reverend Hemsley here. Would you introduce your group?

Dr. VAN DYKE. On my right is Dr. Jose Vasquez and Mrs. Carlos G. Gonzalez.

Senator KENNEDY. I notice you have sitting behind you a number of lovely ladies, some of whom I know have been in attendance at our hearings in New York.

Dr. VAN DYKE. Mrs. Vera Tate, who was herself a Russian refugee; this is Miss Sawyer.

Senator KENNEDY. Fine. We had some splendid testimony as to the program itself over in New York, which is a part of our record, and so we would like to, if we could, just make some brief observations about your particular aspects of your program here, and then we'd like to get into maybe hearing from the Cuban refugees themselves, so we can proceed in that manner, and I will call on Dr. Van Dyke.

Dr. VAN DYKE. I am the chairman of the committee for Cuban refugees for the vicinity of New Jersey, United Presbyterian Church. Rather than giving a report of the things we have done, I'd like to underline just a few of the problems that I think are faced by the refugees today, one being the problem of his acceptance and his ability to not only find employment, which can supply him with some type of a living, but one in which he can really practice what he is prepared to do. One of the young men that my wife and I helped resettle was a Cuban doctor from Havana who can't practice medicine himself, although he is the assistant to the chief pathologist for eyes at Bethesda, but he is not a citizen, and in spite of the fact that more recently he was offered a professorship at one of the leading medical schools in the East, yet he couldn't practice medicine.

In the hospital near where we have lived for some years, one of the house doctors earning about $400 a month was a man who had taught medicine in Havana University for many years. Another problem was underlined just before by the young lady who spoke concerning those refugees who came in as parolees and who now face the problem of trying to legalize their residence here so that they can further their gainful employment. Making them go to Canada, which is just about now an impossibility, because, No. 1, Canadians don't want them on their quota, No. 2, because it takes about a year now for anyone to get paperwork done through one of the Government agencies there, so that is a problem.

Another problem which is close to my heart is the problem of many friends that the Cubans have and I have in Cuba, who have shown their opposition to the Government, many of these are clergymen, men who have no relatives here, who have been cut off from all employment, and who are really-they can't get on the list to come in. I have written our Congressmen from New Jersey and called them and tried to get them in some way to put them on the list of those coming out, but this is impossible now, they tell me, until at least the very end of the list, and that's years away. But these people have really in many cases risked their lives, some of them are in prison, others

have been put into the armed forces now because of their opposition to the Government.

The other thing I'd like to underscore just briefly is the fact that I think we ought to strengthen the whole education of the Cuban refugee children. I go back to the experience that they had after the charter revolution in the 1930's when a great many of the people who are leading Cuba now in the background were educated by the Communists in France and in Russia, who lived there for years without any ostentation or any show that they were Communists, but who, when the time came, were there to do the job that had to be done. Hopefully, we look forward to the time when the Cubans will be able to go back, and I think all we can do as a country is to strengthen the education of their children, and that will be repaid many, many times in the years to come.

Now, Mrs. Gonzalez has prepared a brief statement concerning herself and Dr. Vasquez, too.

Mrs. GONZALEZ. My name is Mrs. Rosa P. Gonzalez and I live at 19 Park Street, in Toms River, N.J. My husband is Carlos Gonzalez. We have two sons, named Carlos, Jr. and George.

I was born in the city of Matanzas, Cuba, and lived there all my life until we came to the United States. There I studied in the primary and secondary school and graduated with a bachelor in letters and science from the secondary institute.

When I was 18, I entered the University of Havana to study for a career in pharmacy. During my last year of study I was married and so did not complete my studies. My husband and I lived in Matanzas. During the years that our sons were small, I did not study. When they began school, I went to the School of Plastic Arts at Matanzas and studied there 4 years. My main interests were painting and sculpture.

In 1955, I decided to begin my education for a career in teaching and entered the University of Havana. I received the degree of doctor of pedagogy from this institution in June 1960.

At about that same time, my husband and I began to understand that the political system of Fidel Castro had a Communist base. Our sons were attending a school where a group of young Communists get the students to sign Communist papers. Because our sons refused to So, the situation for them there became worse and worse.

do

Worse than this problem was the one my husband faced in his busiHe was a partner in a food-importing business. The company was confiscated by the Government on October 14, 1960, and overnight we lost all our life savings. But the money was not as important to us as our freedom and the opportunity for our sons to grow up in a free land. So we decided to try to come to the United States.

Because of the break in relations between our country and this, we finally came out of Cuba by way of Jamaica. The day was March 30, 1961. We were helped by Church World Service and finally arrived in Miami on April 26, 1961. Since May 2, 1961, we have lived in New Jersey.

I am now employed by the Lakewood High School, Lakewood, N.J., as a Spanish teacher. My husband is employed by Presbyterian Camp, Island Heights, N.J. Our older son is a junior in college and the younger hopes to enter college in the fall.