I NEWS 1 To all of our friends .. . Our Sincerest Wishes for a Happy and Healthy NEW YEAR Ethel & Ben Siegal -- Dennise, Danielle, Amy, Audrey, Carole, Marilyn mprArampAronrar, IVAIP"7"":1, MY /ilk Ldailikal Inv'urin /77,771/,/ !JIM 7.11//1/147/1114/ ru 855-6566 HUNTERS SQUARE 855-4460 ORCHARD LAKE and 14 MILE OPEN DAILY 10:00-5:30 WEDNESDAY & THURSDAY 'til 9:00 the MICHIGAN GROUP REALTORS® 7499 Middlebelt Road West Bloomfield, Michigan 48322 Veteran refusenik Yosef Begun holds one of his two grandchildren upon his arrival in Israel with his wife Ina last February. 04 41 (313) 851 - 4100 RELO WORLD LEADER IN RELOCATION THE SIGN OF SUCCESS Soviet. Union Ambivalent About Jewish Situation DEBORAH LIPSON Best Wishes to all of our clients and friends for a Happy and Healthy NEW YEAR. from all of us at THE MICHIGAN GROUP Sales Manager Bonnie Spicher Assistant Manager Joan Char Linda Beltzman Madeline Bleier Wendy Bratt Brenda Burdge John Coury Dianna Gogolen Yvonne Giroux Sharon Gutman Gerry Hayden Ruth Herzler Joanne Lynch Fred Madley Ruth Malach Rick Massa Bob Massaron Associates Jessie McFadden Marva McPherson Barb Megerian Barb Meisner Carol Rankin May Roach Frank Skrumbellos Marianne Strickland Bill Woldt Sharon Spindler Cecil Malach Michelle Ashley Bonnie Char Nadine Zywicki FRED MADLEY HOMESTEAD TITLE COMPANY RELIANCE MORTGAGE COMPANY 104 FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 1988 Special to The Jewish News erusalem — The situa- tion of the estimated 1.7 million Jews of the Soviet Union (unofficial estimates put the figure higher than two million) has remained in the con- sciousness of the free world and on the agenda in meetings between heads of state. Just before Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev's visit to Washington last December, a massive rally of an estimated quarter of a million people demonstrated their dissatisfaction with Soviet policy on the question of the right of Soviet Jews to live freely as Jews within the USSR and to repatriate to Israel if they so wish. Yet despite this awareness, the situation for the Jews of the Soviet Union remains am- bivalent and unsure. The facts of Jewish life within the USSR today have remained essentially un- changed: the majority of Soviet Jews know nothing of their heritage or of Jewih religious ritual and tradi- tions; there are no Jewish schools, centers of Jewish culture or official access to modern Israeli culture or the Hebrew language. The past year has seen a growth in ultra-nationalist right-wing groups within the Soviet Union, whose doc- trines clearly include anti- Semitic elements. While such groups (most active among them is Pamyat, "Memory") are not official, they have, to a degree, been officially sanctioned. Unofficial attempts to j develop a Jewish culture have met with less active suppres- sion than in thepast. An unof- ficial Museum of Soviet Jewish Culture was opened in Moscow in a privae home last January; the city now possesses an unofficial Jewish library and Jews in several Soviet cities performed purimshpiels to mark the festival of Purim. Hebrew lessons are available in a number of Soviet towns and cities, and a new Hebrew ulpan was openly advertised in a local newspaper in the Azerbaizhanian capital of Baku in November 1987. These and many other small-scale activities, Many refuseniks continue to be refused permission to leave on the grounds that a member of the family has access to classified information. however, are far from con- stituting a fully-fledged culture. Equally important, it must be remembered that they only reach a small percentage of the Jewish population. In 1986, the number of Soviet Jews permitted to leave the USSR on visas for Israel was, at 904, one of the lowest annual figures since the modern wave of emigra- tion began in the early 1970s. The figure for 1987, however, was considerably higher — 8,155 Soviet Jews left, and the 1988 total promises to be