16 Friday, February 14, 1986

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

THEFT REPAIR SPECIALISTS

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YOUTH

"Out Of The Movies"

Continued From Page 1

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Rona ld Po n key

You KNOW That

The AL HARRISON Luggage Outlet

has an excellent selection of small leather goods and handbags
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Friday., Feb. 14
Saturday, Feb. 15
Monday, Feb. 17

ALL SMALL LEATHER GOODS Are An
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HANDBAG SALE
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AL HARRISON Luggage Outlet

3116 W. 12 Mile Rd. (Between Greenfield & Coolidge)

Mon., Thurs., & Fri. 9-9; Tues., Wed., & Sat. 9-5

545-7393

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'

Samuil Valk looks at letters to Soviet Jews being written by Lisa
Raboi and Cindy Friedman.

"We must all know and be in-
formed of the severe situation of
Jews in Russia." Weingarten
added, "Who better to ask about
the situation of Jews in Russia
than a Russian Jew himself?"
In an hour-long question-and-
answer session, Valk, president of
the Jewish Heritage Organiza-
tion for young Russians, related
the events surrounding his 1978
immigration during U.S.-Soviet
detente. In 1978, 28,000 Jews left
the Soviet Union, and in 1979 a
record 51,000 Jews were allowed
to leave. "In Russia," he joked,
"there is no such word as immi-
gration," noting that he left his
grandmother, father and brother
behind.
He told the students, some
wearing bracelets and nametags
inscribed with the names of Soviet
refuseniks, that even with a Ph.D.
he would not have job advance-
ment in Russia. "It's a crime to
have money there," he said
grimly, remembering how he once
spent a month's salary on a pair of
Levis.
But when Mike Sasson, 17, of
Oak Park, questioned Valk's real
reasons for leaving, the Russian
was emphatic. "I saw my father
fighting in public transportation
over being a Jew ... there were
numbers of bleeding noses," said
Valk. Many Jews he knew had
never been in a synagogue. "I
can't even imagine how we kept
our family torah for so many
years," he said.
Though Valk admitted that he
would return to Russia if the poli-
tics changed, he said that going
back to visit was a "no-no." As
happens in many cases of Jewish
immigration, relatives left behind
are punished. Valk's father lost
his job, and packages from
America are sometimes ex-
changed or lost. Another speaker,
Detroit Soviet Jewry Committee
member Mike Winkleman, called
this "a deliberate, random kind of
terror to discourage Jews from
leaving the Soviet Union."
Together with his wife, Betsy,
Winkleman presented a slide
show of their 1984 trip to the

Soviet Union. The pictures
showed refusenik families who
had undergone bugging, impris-
onment and harassment. "We
have a responsibility to know that
they are not forgotten," Winkle-
man told the teens. "You folks will
have to carry the baton until we
get them out."
Though some were startled by
the accounts of Soviet life, most
members of the audience, like
18-year-old Patty Lieberman,
president of Adat Shalom USY,
admitted that active USY partici-
pants are already well aware of
the plight. Marianne Milgrom,
17, president of Shaarey Zedek
USY, agreed. "We've been taught
about the problem since junior
high . . . We're very aware."
Stuart J. Rogoff, youth director of
Shaarey Zedek, also noted the
existence of a city-wide Soviet
Jewry Youth Committee for
younger students.
But Valk disagreed, saying
there is "not enough youth
awareness ... We should always
have more involvement." He
suggested that after the 1970-
1979 immigrations, the public
said " 'Okay, let's relax', and stop-
ped the pressure." And Irwin
Weingarten feels that
"percentage-wise, there's nothing
being done in this community."
Valk, along with Detroit Soviet
Jewry public relations subcom-
mittee chairman Jeannie Weiner,
urged teens to begin letter-
writing to refuseniks and officials
in America and the Soviet Union.
The teens participated in a
letter-writing seminar that Betsy
Winkleman called the "action-
step of the process."

"All this information is really
useless if you don't do something
with it," Weiner said. She also in-
sisted that the letters are often
received by the refuseniks and not

intercepted by Soviet officials. "I
get letters back and forth very of-

ten," she said, "and I write to six
families a month."
Marc Gould added that even if
the letter is not received, "at least
the Soviet government will know
that there are people concerned in

•. 7