NEWS
FOOTSTEPS
PODIATRY
CLINIC STAFF
Ambivalence
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wish all their patients, friends and family
a Happy and Healthy Holiday Season and a
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Best Wishes
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Happy New Year
THE GORNBEIN FAMILY
AND STAFF
Carl and Myra Gornbein
Mark Gornbein • Fay Fries
Norman Gornbein
Sharon Gornbein
Arline Allen • Arthur Greenwald
Frankie Fish • Lillian DeRoven
r.
GORNBEINO
JEWELERS
106
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 1988
357-1056
SUITE 110 - HERITAGE PLAZA
24901 NORTHWESTERN HWY.
SOUTHFIELD
HOURS: MON.-FRI. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. • SAT. 10 a.m.-3 p.m.
especially in an era of rapid-
ly developing technology, is
wholly spurious. People refus-
ed exit visas on these grounds
have no right of appeal, or
any way of finding out who
imposed the security restric-
tion against them or when it
will expire.
Others are denied permis-
sion to leave because of
their inability to obtain
the necessary financial
waiver from family remain-
ing in the USSR. The mere
fact that there are no out-
standing material claims
against the applicant is not
sufficient. A refusal by so-
meone to sign that he has no
claims can delay the depar-
ture of a would-be emigrant
indefinitely. To date, there is
no Soviet law which requires
someone to state his claims
within a certain period of
time or lose the right to make
them.
For several months now,
senior Soviet officials have
been talking about new
legislation, currently under
preparation, which will
resolve both these problems.
As yet, there is no firm date
when this legislation will ac-
tually appear on the statute
books, or exactly what its pro-
visions will be.
One of the most troubling
aspects of the current emigra-
tion movement is the high
percentage of Soviet Jews
who leave the USSR on visas
for Israel but choose to settle
elsewhere. Since the late
1970s, the drop-out rate has
fluctuated between 70 and 80
percent. In June 1988, it
reached an all-time high of
over 90 percent, spurring the
Israeli government to
toughen its stance on the
issue.
The Israeli cabinet recent-
ly voted to oblige all Soviet
Jews who have applied with
invitations from Israel, to
come to Israel, irrespective of
when they first applied for an
exit visa. In the future, all en-
try visas to Israel wil be
issued not by the Dutch Em-
bassy in Moscow, but by the
Israeli Embassy in
Bucharest.
There can be no guarantee
that the increase in the
number of Jews allowed to
leave the USSR and the more
relaxed attitude to unofficial
Jewish activities will con-
tinue. Soviet Jews, as a
minority within the USSR,
suffer from severe discrimina-
tion. Those who apply to
leave, run the risk of losing a
good job and security, to be
replaced by years of a mean-
ingless existence in refusal,
harassment and possible ar-
rest. While the past year has
seen the release from im-
prisonment of all the remain-
ing prisoners for Zion, the
future for those Jews living in
the USSR or wishing to leave
is very uncertain.
World Zionist Press Service
-"ml NOTEBOOK Immimmimmm
Yiddish Classics Taped
To Preserve Language
BEN GALLOB
Special to The Jewish News
N
ew York — A one-man
effort by a college
student to salvage
forgotten and discarded Yid-
dish books has grown into a
bustling international enter-
prise, applying modern
technology to help stimulate
use of a dying language.
It began when Aaron Lan-
sky was a student at McGill
University in Montreal,
where his major was Euro-
pean Jewish studies, with a
concentration in Yiddish
literature.
On a hunch one day, he
began to visit Jewish homes
in Montreal, asking residents
for Yiddish books they owned
but couldn't read. He
discovered a surprising
number that did.
Graduating in 1980 with a
masters degree in Yiddish
literature, he returned home
to Amherst, Mass., and
resumed the hunt for discard-
ed Yiddish books. As news of
his search spread, his house
soon became inundated with
Yiddish books.
He realized that he needed
a more structured enterprise,
so he started the National
Yiddish Book Center.
At first the center rented
space in an Amherst factory,
but soon they outgrew it. lb
the rescue came the town of
Holyoke, Mass., which
donated a former school
building to the center.
So far, the center has
850,000 books collected and
stored there. The center's of-
fices, meanwhile, are head-
quartered in Amherst.
Lansky, 33, said the first
phase of the center's long-
range program was collecting
books. The second phase is
getting the books into
research and university
libraries.