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