I BACKGROUND
I
MISS BARBARA'S
DANCE CENTRE
30 YEARS OF FINE DANCE
INSTRUCTION. NOW . . . THE
LATEST IN JAZZ * TAP * BALLET
WE HAVE LIMITED
SPACE FOR JANUARY
ENROLLMENT. FIRST
LESSON FREE!
TEACHING BALLET IS PAM ELDRED,
FORMER MISS AMERICA!
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CALL:
626-2755
HUNTERS SQUARE
31025 ORCHARD LAKE ROAD
FARMINGTON HILLS
WE SHIP
GIFTS
IF YOU WISH WE'LL PACKAGE THEM TOO!
No long lines — courteous employees
and extended hours. Next day service
available. We handle anything from
1 to 1,000 pounds and we ship
furniture too.
Easy shipping at the
*1111 11111
"
HAND"
NO
CARS'
Packaging
The shipper that does the packing, too!
Troy
Birmingham
Southfield
Farmington
W. Bloomfield
3954 Rochester Rd .
(At Wattles)
2523 W. Maple
(At Cranbrook)
26087 W. 12 Mile
(12 High Plaza)
32328 Grand River
(East of Power Rd.)
6453 Farmington Rd.
(At Maple Rd.)
680-0993
433-3070
352-8955
474-9730
855-5822
Additional Holiday Location in the
Orchard Mall (Orchard Lake at Maple)
108
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 11, 1987
E
moserc.-1
,.
Glasnost Detrimental
To Refusniks' Health
SUSAN ROSENBLUTH
R
ather than benefitting
ill refuseniks, glas-
nost may actually be
complicating their plight, ac-
cording to seven American
Jewish doctors who returned
last month from an unofficial
trip to the Soviet Union.
With the new Soviet policy
of openness, the doctors said,
the refuseniks are encourag-
ed to reapply for permission
to emigrate. Most don't
receive it, causing severe ten-
sion, followed by depression.
This in turn exacerbates any
pre-existing medical condi-
tions, they said. Furthermore,
the new openness has en-
couraged the Soviet citizenry,
including physicians, to open-
ly display expressions of
anti-Semitism.
Six of the seven American
doctors participated in a
pioneering effort to establish
a medical link with the
Jewish refusenik com-
munities in Leningrad and
Moscow.
Although for many years,
involved American Jews, in-
cluding physcians, have fre-
quently visited with in-
dividual refusenik families,
providing moral support and
demonstrating solidarity, this
was the first coordinated mis-
sion to evaluate the health
needs and status of this
beleaguered people.
The patients formed long
lines at various "clinics," set
up extemporaneously in
several refusenik's
apartments.
The physicians also visited
homes, discovering Jewish
paraplegics who, without ac-
cess to wheelchairs, are vir-
tual prisoners in their small,
dreary apartments; children,
who without access to the
wide variety of antibiotics
taken for granted in the West,
lie ill for weeks with ear an
throat infections; and older
Jewish patients to whom
Soviet physicians deny life-
saving surgery.
Overall, they found medical
care in the Soviet Union
varies from appropriate to
"decidedly substandard."
Some patients are in life-
threatening need of medical
care, including 80-year-old
Viktor Flaksman of Len-
ingrad, a refusenik for many
years.
Flaksman, a diabetic with
peripheral vascular disease, is
now suffering from gangrene
of the right foot. His
daughter, Olga Gershun, told
the doctors that a Soviet
surgeon refused to perform
the necessary amputation
because general anesthesia —
the only type readily
available in the Soviet Union
— would be too risky for a car-
diac patient. Without
surgery, however, her father
will almost certainly die of
infection.
In the west, Flaksmari's
surgery could be performed
under far-safer local
anesthesia. Then, after
surgery, he could be fitted
with a suitable prosthesis,
making his chances of walk-
ing excellent.
Two of the doctors have ar-
ranged for the surgery to be
performed at the hospital
with which they are af-
filiated, free of charge, if on-
ly the Soviets can be persuad-
ed to release Flaksman.
Among the other refuseniks
the doctors say must be
released for medical reasons
are 32-year-old Irina Gor-
junova of Moscow (breast
cancer), Naum Meiman of
Moscow (chronic leukemia
and prostatism) and Ben-
jamin Charney of Moscow
(vascular disease and
melanoma).
"We appeal to the cons-
cience of all decent people
everywhere to grant these
people the basic human right
of emigration, which, in the
case of the refuseniks, is their
very right to life," the doctors
said in a prepared statement.
Copyright 1987, JTA, Inc.
NEWS
AJC Joins
Suit Vs. PLO
Washington, D.C. — The
State Department's decision
to close the Palestine Libera-
tion Organization's
Washington office, known as
the Palestine Information Of-
fice, (PIO), did not violate the
First Amendment, the
American Jewish Congress
said last month in a
memorandum of law it is
seeking to file with the
United States District Court
for the District of Columbia.
The AJCongress' motion
and memorandum of law
were submitted in the case of
Palestine Information Office v.
Shultz, in which the PIO is
challening the Department's
decision.
Noting that the PIO con-
cedes that it is an agent of the
PLO, and that it is funded by
the Palestine National Fund,.
a division of the PLO, the
memorandum of law argues