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14
FRIDAY, APRIL 1, 1988
Doris and Lora Bank: Don't Let the Light Go Out
Symbolic Seder Recalls
Anguish Of Soviet Jewry
ELIZABETH KAPLAN
Staff Writer
he guests raised their
cups, one by one, in
honor of four people
who were not even there.
The first cup was filled for
Rabo Anisimov. The second
was for Sofia Aron, the third
for Gennady Podgorny • and
the fourth for Mark
Podgoetsky.
The four — all Soviet Jews
who have been consistently
refused permission to
emigrate — were honored at
the first symbolic Freedom
Seder for Soviet Jewry, held
Sunday at the Maple/Drake
Jewish Community Center.
More than 190 Detroiters
attended the event, which
was sponsored by the Soviet
Jewry Committee of the
Jewish Community Council
and chaired by Elaine
Sturman.
It appeared, at the outset,
much like any Passover seder.
Earlier in the evening,
members of the King AZA
had set the tables with small
containers filled with
charoset and horseradish, and
a full plate of matzot.
There was a Haggadah, too;
but this one was filled with
references to Soviet Jews,
drawing analogies between
the familiar Pesach themes
and the plight of the
refuseniks. The reading of the
T
Ten Plagues also included a
recitation of the "Ten Plagues
of the Soviet Union," —
among them the stifling of
Jewish education, the loss of
jobs, the separation of
families and the banning of
Jewish culture and ritual
items.
And at each table there was
a deliberate emptiness: a
chair left for one of the four
refuseniks still trapped in the
Soviet Union.
At one table the chair was,
for 40-year-old Rabo
Anisimov of Derbent, an un-
skilled laborer and father of
two. The name of Sofia Aron
of Grozny was printed on
another chair. Aron's father
lives in Israel, but his
31-year-old daughter and her
mother have been denied ex-
it visas because of "insuffi-
cient kinship."
Another place was set for
Gennady Podgorny, 42, an
electrical engineer and father
of two who lives in Lvov. The
final seat was for Mark
Podgoetsky, a 62-year-old
refusenik from Moscow.
Soviet officials have not given
Podgoetsky, who has two
daughters, any reason for
their decision to consistently
refuse him permission to
emigrate.
It might seem curious to
hear a major player in
organizing an event express
her hope that it would be the
last. But Jeannie Weiner,
chairman of the Soviet Jewry
Committee, did just that. As
the symbolic seder . began,
Weiner called for the im-
mediate release of the
refuseniks, saying "we cannot
be free until all of us are free."
She said Soviet Jews, whom
she called "the pieces of a
deadly game," are granted ex-
it visas only when it is time-
ly or politically expedient.
"We will work until each
captive emerges into the light
of freedom," Weiner said.
Joel Gershenon, past chair-
man of the Soviet Jewry Com-
mittee, recalled his trip to the
Soviet Union where he met
with refuseniks Viktor
Brailovsky and Benjamin
Bogomoliny. Gershenon said
that while meeting with
Bogomoliny, he discovered
that the two shared the same
birthday. They celebrated
together with a kosher-for-
Passover cake.
From Brailovsky, Ger-
shenon said he learned "a
new definition for courage,
and I knew what it means
that it's difficult to be a Jew."
In-between such recollec-
tions and readings from the
Haggadah, Cantor Chaim
Naiman_ of Shaarey Zedek
and Rabbi Norman Roman of
Temple Kol Ami led the au-
dience in songs including We
Are Leaving Mother Russia
and Don't Let the Light Go