6• Friday, April 11, 1986
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
MERCEDES
'86
BIRMING.
•
GLASS & MIRROR INC.
$349.00
LEASING
• Quality Work And Materials
• Competitive Prices
• Friendly Owner
per month
Visa Denial Hurts
Moscow-Detroit Pair
*PORSCHE
*AUDI
*JAGUAR
*VOLVO
Call 258-5000
BY GEORGE BLACKWOOD
Special to The Jewish News
-0- Down With
Purchase Option
or
visit
NEWS
our showroom
1160 Grant Street at Lincoln • Birmingham
VAR. ALLEN 357-0614/
13740
• W. 9 Mile
Next to
Oak Park
Post Office
T REAT
Ingrown Nail§
0 Warts
0 Pediatric
Foot Care
HT OF
• Diabetic
Foot Care
Heel Pain
Sports
Medicine
Keith Braun and Svetlana Ilyinichna Braun
Medicare and most insurance plans
accepted as payment in full.
New Studio Now Open In Harvard low Mall
74/ `41
-/24`444
50%-70% OFF
ALL NAME BRANDS
• Vertical Blinds
• Levolor Blinds
• Pleated Shades
• Wood Blinds
21728 W. Beven Mile Rd.
Harvard Row Mall
Southfield, Ml 48076
.
Free Professional Measure at
No Obligation
Free in Home Design Consulting
.
Daily 10:00-5, Thurs. till 8
Saturday 11:00-3:00
52
318622
14 .10 4. •
•
.1
•
A 26-year-old Detroit attor-
ney, separated from his 22-
year-old Soviet wife since
shortly after their August 1984
marriage in Moscow, is fearful a
Soviet refusal to issue him a
tourist visa last week may mean
he has seen that country for the
last time.
Keith Braun met Svetlana
Ilyinichna while he was in his
last year of law school at the
University of Pennsylvania and
in Moscow on a student study
tour. The young Jewish couple
fell in hive immediately and
were married shortly after that,
in 1984. But he was forced to
leave Russia without her when
his student visa expired.
"The soviet denial of my sixth
visa request really shook me,
but it has absolutely devastated
my wife," Braun said during an
interview at his Southfield con-
dominium. Braun had planned
to leave for Moscow last Friday
and spend a week with his wife
before travelling on to Bern,
Switzerland, to attend an April
15 conference on "human con-
tacts," as part of the Helsinki
human rights accords monitor-
ing process.
"I called Svetlana Wednesday
night after the consulate in-
formed me my tourist visa had
been denied," he said. "She
couldn't believe it and thought
it was all a mistake.
"It's a scary thing, The denial
of my visa might very well
mean I'll never be allowed in
the Soviet Union again. Each
time I'm with Svetlana, we
realize it may be our last time
together, and each time we re-
ceive a letter from the other, we
realize it may be the last one.
"Svetlana has counted on me
coming over on a regular basis
and this threatens it. She says
her life feels empty each time I
leave, that all her dreams are
bound up in me and she can't
imagine life without me."
The couple write each other
every day and talk on the phone
once a week, up from once every
three weeks when they were
first separated. Braun has man-
_ aged., to. return to Russia four
times in Ifi6 fast lenbofithg,131ii
the couple are terrified during
his ten-day visits because it is
illegal for them to spend the
night at her apartment or his
hotel room.
Although she does not under-
stand baseball, Svetlana spent
much of 1984 hearing about the
Detroit Tigers' championship
season, Braun said, adding that
she also enjoys American news-
paper cartoons.
"I'm very pragmatic about
this situation; this is not a polit-
ical thing; all I want is for her
to be here," said Braun, who
until now has requested that his
name not appear in print.
The last 18 months have been
a strain, Braun admitted. "I've
lost 20 pounds and gone from a
34-inch to a 31-inch waist."
In an ideal world, perhaps,
, young lovers would not be sepa-
rated by world politics. As a
self-described pragmatist, how-
ever, Braun has spent the last
year cultiviating political con-
nections and being active in the
Divided Spouses Coalition, a
nationwide organization which
lobbies on Capitol Hill and is-
sues a newsletter.
Braun met with Rep. William
Broomfield (R-Birmingham)
prior to Broomfield's trip to the
Soviet Union last week to pre-
sent a list of 35 refuseniks to
Soviet leader Mikhail Gor-
bachev.
Broomfield and Rep. Dante
Fascell (D-Fla.), the ranking
members of the House Foreign
Affairs Committee from their
respective parties, asked for the
release of 12 Soviet Jewish
• families as a humanitarian ges-
ture.
Broomfield and Fascell met
with Svetlana and nine other
divided' spouses last week in
Moscow.
• "Congressman Broomfield rec-
ognized Svetlana from the pic-
ture I had given him," Braun
said. "She liked him instantly,
and he told her he wanted to do
something to help."
Braun said he sees "rays of
hope" in upcoming political
meetings like the Bern confer-
ence and the _possible summit
conference 'betW'eeii tlid tdite
,