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58
FRIDAY, OCT. 23, 1987
MILANO
FUR & LEATHER
271 W. Maple
Birmingham
Refusenik Slepaks Get
Permission To Leave
New York (JTA) — Refuse-
niks Vladimir and Maria
Slepak, who have been seek-
ing to leave the Soviet Union
for the past 17 years, were in-
formed by Soviet emigration
officials last week that they
had been granted permission
to emigrate.
News of the development
first reached the West via an
Associated Press report from
Moscow and was later con-
firmed by the National Con-
ference on Soviet Jewry,
which contacted the Slepaks
directly by telephone.
They said they will leave for
Israel as soon as they "sell
their car and have the money
for the tickets,' according to
the reports.
Vladimir Slepak, a former
Prisoner of Conscience and a
leading Moscow activist on
behalf of Jews seeking to
repatriate to Israel, is the
latest in a string of prominent
Soviet Jewish refuseniks to be
granted permission to
emigrate.
The USSR has allowed a
number of prominent refuse-
niks to emigrate recently, in-
cluding Ida Nudel, and these
moves have been interpreted
in the West as part of a
Kremlin strategy to improve
its human-rights image on
the eve of U.S. Secretary of
State George Shultz's visit to
Moscow and perhaps weeks
away from an expected sum-
mit between President
Reagan and Soviet leader
Mikhail Gorbachev.
The Slepaks' involvement
with Jewish activists in
Moscow goes back to the in-
ception of the movement, in
the late 1960's, during the
renaissance of Jewish solid-
arity with Israel that came
after the Six-Day War.
Vladimir Slepak was among
the first group of Jews in the
USSR to petition the United
Nations by letter for the right
of Jews to be repatriated to
Israel. He led demonstrations
and met with foreign digni-
taries, journalists and visitors
from abroad.
Vladimir and Maria Slepak
first applied to emigrate in
April 1970. Their first refusal
came in June of that year, on
the basis of Vladimir's work
as a radio engineer, which
was deemed "secret work."
From that time on, they were
under constant surveillance
and even house arrest. Their
apartment was repeatedly
searched and their books and
belongings were confiscated
on more than one occasion.
Slepak was one of the
original founders of the unof-
ficial Moscow Helsinki Moni-
toring Committee, which he
started in June 1976, along
with Anatoly Shcharansky,
Yuri Orlov, Andrei Sakharov
and Yelena Bonner.
In 1977, his son, Alexander,
was permitted to immigrate
to Israel, joining Maria's
mother there. In 1979, their
son Leonid followed his
brother to Israel. The two
brothers currently reside in
the United States.
In 1978, the Slepaks were
arrested for hanging a banner
outside their Moscow apart-
ment window that said, "Let
Us Go to Our Son in Israel."
For this, Vladimir was sen-
tenced to five years' exile in
Siberia, on charges of
malicious hooliganism.
Maria, a radiologist who is
known by her nickname,
Masha, was given a three-
year suspended sentence, but
volunteered to share her hus-
band's exile. The couple
returned from exile in 1982.
Israel Press
Still Struck
Tel Aviv (JTA) — The strike
by Israeli radio and television
journalists continued last
week, with the output of
broadcast news rationed. But
electronically wired house-
holds — the majority in this
country of little over four
million — still have a
substantial menu of enter-
tainment and information
from which to choose.
The Israel Broadcast Auth-
ority (IBA), whose news-
writers and newscasters are
striking for higher wages,
still provided wall-to-wall
"good" music, "pop" music,
talk shows nd documentaries
on its four radio bands. For
television viewers there are
the usual reruns of American
sitcoms, action-adventure
series and late night "adult"
soaps.
Boy Scouts
Irving, 'Mx. (JTA) — The
Boy Scouts of America (BSA)
has added a Jewish study pro- -
gram for its first-grade
members, Tiger Cubs,
culminating in the Macabee
emblem.
An estimated 7,000 Jewish
boys belong to the program
either in units sponsored by
Jewish institutions or in non-
religious units, according to
the BSA Jewish relationships
office.