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Israel Government Press Office
continued from page 10
Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres officially welcomes Natan Sharansky to
Israel in 1986, after 13 years in Soviet prison and labor camps.
rienced Operation Exodus to share their
stories with the millennial generation, who
are too young to remember it.
He said he wants them to know that
“when the Jewish people unite to take on
problems, we can create miracles.”
DETROIT EFFORTS
The entire Detroit Jewish community
pulled together to help resettle the Soviet
immigrants, said Perry Ohren, who
worked for JFS in the 1990s and has been
its executive director since 2011.
At the time, immigration services were
handled by Resettlement Service, an inde-
pendent agency of the Jewish Federation
that shared resources with JFS. The two
agencies merged in 1995.
“We had the mentality of ‘all hands on
deck’ and ‘it takes a village,’” Ohren said.
“JVS provided employment assistance.
Hebrew Free Loan lent them money.
The Jewish Community Center provided
English language classes for the adults.
Sinai Hospital offered health care. Local
families befriended them through the
Family to Family program.
“Everything was very different from
what they were used to in the Soviet
Union,” he said.
Today, about a quarter of the JFS work-
force are people who came here from the
Soviet Union, he said.
The resettlement of so many Soviet
immigrants within such a short period
of time is “a really great illustration of
what JFS stands ready to do. We took a
lot of people and made them part of the
American dream,” Ohren said.
Jeannie Weiner of West Bloomfield, a
past president of the Jewish Community
Relations Council (JCRC) who was very
involved in the move-
ment to free Soviet
Jews, said there would
have been no Operation
Exodus without the
international advocacy
effort that preceded it.
The late Jerry Rogers
—
along with Rae
Jeannie Weiner
Sharfman, the late Ida
Joyrich and the late
Arnold Michlin and
others — founded the Detroit Committee
for Soviet Jewry, a grassroots effort picked
JFS Annual Meeting
Jewish Family Service’s annual meeting will
also showcase JFS awards.
Larisa Korot, Volunteer of the Year, has
given more than 3,000 hours of service to
JFS over the course of 10 years. She works
two days a week in the transportation
12 April 28 • 2016
department, taking on additional days as
needed to cover for others. She is bilingual,
which enables her to help a wide range of
clients.
Sarah Tupica-Berard, Mentor of the Year,
has been working with a girl named Emma
His wife, Avital, did
up by the JCRC in 1981.
receive an exit visa, and
“Jerry was tireless and able to bridge
advocated tirelessly on
the gap between the grassroots and the
his behalf from Israel.
organized community,” Weiner recalled.
He was finally released
Leaders would send activists to picket
on Feb. 11, 1986, as part
at Orchestra Hall whenever a Russian
of a prisoner exchange,
artist appeared, “not to prevent people
and immediately left for
going in, but to raise awareness,” she said.
Israel.
They would send delegations to meet with Natan
Sharansky
He has served as
members of Congress and urge them to
Israel’s ambassador to
act on the issue.
“It ended up being extremely effective,” the U.N., as a member of the Knesset and
as deputy prime minister. He has been a
she said.
cabinet minister for the interior, for hous-
SHARANSKY IN DETROIT
ing and construction, and for industry
The JFS event will mark Sharansky’s first
and trade.
public address in Detroit. He will be inter-
He is known for his “town square test”
viewed by Marvin Lender.
for a free society, which he described in
Sharansky was born Anatoly Borisovich his book, The Case for Democracy, first
Shcharansky in 1948 in Donetsk, Ukraine. published in 2004.
In 1973, after his request for an exit
“If a person cannot walk into the mid-
visa was denied, he became an activist on dle of the town square and express his or
behalf of Soviet Jews seeking to relocate to her views without fear of arrest, imprison-
Israel. In 1977, he was arrested on charges ment or physical harm,” he wrote, “then
of treason and spying for the United
that person is living in a fear society, not
States. He spent 13 years in prisons and
a free society. We cannot rest until every
labor camps, much of it in solitary con-
person living in a fear society has finally
finement.
won their freedom.”
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for about seven years, far beyond her initial
one-year commitment. During that time,
she changed jobs, got married and had a
baby, but she maintained her mentor rela-
tionship.
The Employee of the Year award will be
announced at the meeting.
The meeting will begin with an hors
d’oeuvres and dessert reception at 6:30
p.m. Tuesday, May 17, at Congregation
Shaarey Zedek in Southfield. There is no
charge to attend, but a donation of $18 is
suggested, and reservations are a must.
Sponsors who donate $1,000 or more will
also be invited to an intimate dinner with
Sharansky before the event. Reservations
can be made at www.jfsannualmeeting.
org.
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