Detroiters' Mission to Russia Reported
By SHELLY JACKIER
FORESTS
that bear your name
Long after you have gone, forests in Israel
renewing themselves in the cycle of sea-
sons, will keeps your memory ever green.
When making your Will, provide that a
forest in Israel be planted in your name or
in that of someone dear to you, handihg
down your last wish from generation to
generation.
A bequest to the J.N.F. is a bequest to the
entire Jewish people, linking the name
of the Testator with Israel in perpetuity.
For information and advice
in strict confidence apply to
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"Ba Shana Ha Ba'a
B'Yerushalayim." Like op-
pressed Jews throughout
our history, the Soviet
Jewish refusniks utter this
prayer from the depths of an
anguished soul but with the
conviction and hope that the
reality will occur.
My husband Larry, my-
self, and Linda and Joel
Gershenson embarked on a
mission to meet with some
of these modern-day heroes.
After being denied permis-
sion to emigrate to Israel,
they are routinely fired
from their jobs and sub-
jected to continual harass-
ment and intimidation.
What nourishes their
spiritual hunger is their de-
termination to learn as
much about Israel as possi-
ble — its past and present in
all its aspects: its culture,
its social, political and eco-
nomic problems and its lan-
guage. They have organized
ulpans to study Hebrew
from whatever materials
they can. secure from the
underground. Surprisingly,
they possess the latest
tapes, teaching methods
and texts.
These people have no
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question in their minds
about their determina-
tion to go to Israel and
about their Jewish iden-
tity. When questioned
about the reason for their
Zionist awakening, they
almost uniformly attri-
bute it to the Six-Day War
of 1967.
A latent often repressed
feeling of pride stirred their
conscience. They were de-
termined to be an integral
part of that tradition, no
longer to be a broken or mis-
sing link in the chain of
Jewish history.
Lev Furman and Abba
Taratutta are the leaders of
the ulpans for Hebrew in
Leningrad. Victor
Brailovsky is one of the
major, leaders of the Moscow
refusnik community as well
as a distinguished cyber-
neticist.
Arkady Mai is a political
scientist, and Nellie Seidel,
his wife, more of a political
activist, was one of the or-
ganizers of the women's re-
fusnik movement.
Rachel Levin is a
prestigious Moscow -lawyer
who defended Shcharansky.
The others cannot be
classified so easily into
categories within the
movement, such as Mikhail
Kremin, the Kalendarovs,
the Yakirs, and Benny
Bogomolny.
Abba's apartment was
ransacked by nine KGB
agents the morning of the
day we met him. Almost his
complete library of Hebrew
and Judaic tapes and texts
were confiscated along with
addresses of his adoptive
families from the U.S., his
tape recorder, and his son's
rock tapes. Not more than
three hours later, we were
able to replenish a portion of
what was taken.
On the other hand, we
were three days late with
food supplies for the
Kalendarovs who had
just returned from their
once-every-six-month
visit allowed them by the
Soviet authorities with
their son, Boris, who's in
prison. Nevertheless, the
food supplies would get
to him through other
.
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transformed his hobby of
photography into his
primary means of sup-
port since he lost his posi-
tion as radio engineer
upon application for a
visa.
However, he is even
limited in this profession
because he has been denied
a license to photograph any
formal function. Neverthe-
less, he'succeeded in compil-
ing an outstanding collec-
tion of photographs which
has won acclaim outside of
the Soviet Union entitled:
"The Children of Refusniks
— Soviet Style."
Since his refusal and d.
to increased tension and
frustration, Mikhail's
speech impediment became
more pronounced, and his
wife has developed such
serious headaches and
stomachaches that she is
unable to work.
"Lamrot ha col" — in
spite of it all — their spirit
remains yearning to be free
in "their" homeland of Is-
rael. It is this common
thread which unites them,
organizes them into cul-
tural and professional
groups and ulpans and
which makes each day
bearable.
Visit to Russia Is Topic
of Jr. Division Speakers
Joel Gershenson, regional chairman of the
United Jewish Appeal's national Young Leader-
ship Cabinet, and Larry Jackier, chairman desig-
nate, will discuss their personal experiences as
Jews visiting Russia at an open meeting of the
Jewish Welfare Federation Junior Division, 8
p.m. Wednesday, in the LaMed Auditorium of
United Hebrew Schools.
Young adults are invited. There is no charge.
AJCommittee Speakers Set
NEW YORK — Daniel
Yankelovich, Ambassador
Jerome J. Shestack, Rabbi
Louis Finkelstein, EEOC
Chairman Eleanor Holmes
Norton, composers Aaron
Copland and Yip Harburg,
Alistair Cooke, and the
stepdaughter of the Soviet
dissident Andrei Sakharov
will be among the partici-
pants at the 74th annual
meeting of the American
Jewish Committee, to be
held Wednesday through
May 18 at the Waldorf-
-Astoria Hotel.
Bertram H. Gold, AJ-
Committee's executive vice
president, will keynote the
meeting with an analysis of
"New Realities in American
Jewish Life," while Richard
Maass, who has served as
the organization's national
president for the past three
years, will turn over the
presidential gavel to
Maynard I. Wishner of
Chicago.
The agenda of the five-
day meeting will cover
America's domestic and
foreign policies, the current
state of Middle East peace
negotiations, the status of
Jewish communities
around the world, prospects
for Jewish-Christian rela-
tions in the coming decade,
intergroup relationships
between Jews and the black
and Hispanic communities,
and the future for human
rights in the Soviet Union
and elsewhere.
NEW YORK (JTA) — El
Al is closing its sales office
in six cities as part of the
company's economic re-
trenchment movement, a
company spokesman said.
He said cities will be served
by regional offices.
Francisco also will be
closed.
The spokesman said thk. 4110
each city will still have a
"resident representative"
which will be a salesperson
working out of his or her
home. This will cut down
the overhead expense of
maintaining an office.
The retrenchment is part
of the program announced
earlier this year by the El Al
management in an effort to
get the Israeli airline out of
the red.
6 El Al Offices Including a
Detroit ! Are to Be Closed
CHOOSE FROM CHAINS . . . BRACELETS .. .
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reg. $30 HOW $ 20
channels in the refusnik
movement.
The Yakir's son, Alexan-
der, and Leonid, the
Brailovsky's son, are await-
ing the same fate of impris-
onment since, like Boris,
draft registration for them
is imminent and they will
refuse to register knowing
full well that any possible
emigration will be auto-
matically deferred five
years beyond their two
years of active duty.
We were aware, in ad-
vance, that an international
science seminar was being
convened in Victor
Brailovsky's two-room
apartment in Moscow six
days after our visit. The
seminar took place with 60
international scientists;
Victor, however, was picked
up by the KGB and ques-
tioned for 12 hours after our
visit.
Rachel Levin has lost her
credentials to practice law
because she sought to pro-
vide legal counsel for some
well-known refusniks. Dis-
enfranchized from openly
practicing her profession,
she still advises their "un-
derground."
Mikhail Kremin has
&
Sat only
The offices in Pittsburgh
and Baltimore are now in
the process of being closed
down, the spokesman said.
He said in the near future
the offices in Atlanta,
Cleveland, Detroit and San