FR A NKL N PLAZA
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M IDNIGHTMADNESS
15-Year Refuseniks
Continued from Page 3
tried to speak the truth and say
what I felt," she said.
Avi's will to survive was an-
other important ingredient on
the Goldstein's road to freedom.
He often wrote to American
children and asked them to con-
vince their parents to write let-
ters to Senators on behalf of the
family.
In fact, as soon as students at
Akiva Day School learned that
Avi was experiencing physical
and emotional abuse from his
classmates in Tblisi, they
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last November to dramatize Avi's
plight.
Because he didn't have any
friends at school, Avi relied on
the hundreds of pictures that he
received from the boys and girls
who wanted to twin with him in
honor of their bar or bat mitzvah.
He would often speak to the pic-
tures as if they were alive and lis-
tening to his dream that one day
his family would live in Israel.
"I spoke with them as them-
selves, not as pictures," said Avi
who is 12 years old.
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Friday, June 20, 1986
J/N 686
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Refusenik's Father Here
Pleads For Son's Release
BY BETTY ELSTER
Special To The Jewish News
Aleksey Magarik, a cellist and
Hebrew teacher was innocently
returning to Moscow from a trip
to Tbilisi, Georgian SSR, when
the Soviets "busted" him for
drugs at the airport.
According to his father, Alek-
sey is not involved with drugs,
and believes that the Soviets
planted them in his bags to give
them cause to arrest the Jewish
refusenik.
Since his arrest, he has been
denied visitation by an attorney.
Testimony from friends who saw
Aleksey pack the bags — without
the alleged drugs — has not been
accepted by the Soviet
authorities.
His father, Vladimir Magarik,
is touring the U.S. to bring atten-
tion to his son's plight.
Speaking in. Detroit Tuesday
night, under the sponsorship of
the Detoit Soviet Jewry Commit-
tee, the elder Magarik discussed
cages similar to his son's and ap-
pealed for help on his son's be-
half.
Aleksey Magarik is the fourth
Jewish refusenik to be arrested
by the Soviet Union on charges of
drug possession. In all four cases,
the people arrested have been in-
volved in furthering Jewish
awareness and Jewish identity in
the Soviet Union: Koifman
worked in a synagogue, and
Kholmiansky and Edelshtein,
like Aleksey Magarik, were He-
brew teachers.
The younger Magarik, 27, was
interested in music since his
youth, said his father. His initial
studies in the Soviet Union, how-
ever, were without Jewish con-
tent. He later became inspired,
said his father, after a friend
brought him the score for Ernest
Bloch's Kol Nidre.
Magarik later told a friend that
classical music no longer seemed
so important to him now that he
had been exposed to Jewish
music. He dropped out of the
mainstream of Soviet society,
began to compose Jewish songs in
Russian and Hebrew and per-
formed with unofficial Jewish
music groups. He and his wife
studied Hebrew, and then taught
the language to other Soviet
Jews.
The elder Magarik said he be-
lieves that this is the real reason
that his son was arrested.
His son is currently in a Tbilisi
prison awaiting appeal sometime
in July.
"My son is a musician," the
elder Magarik said, "and an
athlete. He would have no con-
nection with drugs.
"There is a clear definite trend
in the Soviet Union," he said, "to
attack Hebrew teachers — par-
ticularly Moscow Hebrew
teachers.
"The Soviet Union is attempt-
ing to crush all Hebrew educa-
tion."
When asked why Jews are
being treated so poorly, he re-
sponded: "If a group of people
challenges the Soviet Union, they
(the Soviet Union) are then no
longer in control. The Soviets
cannot bear democracy. They
must be in full control always.
Things are now getting worse."
Magarik said he hopes to some
day see a change in Soviet policy,
he says, and for Hebrew to be
taught without any problems.
Right now, however, his im-
mediate concern is for his son. He
fears for his son's safety in prison
— the beatings by common crim-
inals of Hebrew teachers, the "ac-
cidental" maiming. (Edelshtein
was "accidentally" hurt by a rail-
road tie which damaged his
urethra. He is currently being
denied adequate medical atten-
tion.)
The senior Magarik has under-
taken this U.S. tour to bring his
son's plight before Americans
to Jews and non-Jews alike: to
expose the trumped-up drug
charges, the denial of lawyer-
client contact, the denial of medi-
cal evidence showing no drug us-
age, the denial of testimony of
Aleksey's friends on his behalf.
Magarik is asking for public
outcry against all these denials,
and the denial of the freedom to
pursue religious belief and free-
dom of speech.
Telegrams and letters should
be sent to: Razmadze V.A, Pro-
curator General of Georgia, Pros-
pekt Plekhanova 103, Tbilisi
380110, Georgia SSR, USSR.
For information, contact the
Detroit Soviet Jewry Committee,
962-1880.