The Michigan Daily-Wednesday, December 9, 1987- Page 5

More than 200,000 people crowded toward the front of the mall located between the Capitol and the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C., to get a better view of the speakers at the Freedom Sunday March for Soviet Jewry.

By STEVE BLONDER
Special to the Daily
WASHINGTON - Dorina
Paritsky did not come to Washing.=
ton just to march in the "Freedom
Sunday" celebration. The 21-year-old
came to Washington for a specific
purpose to gain support for her
parents and sister who remain in the
Soviet Union.
Paritsky, who applied for an exit
visa separate from her family, was
 allowed to leave the Soviet Union in
September of this year, and is now
living in Israel.
Paritsky's parents have repeatedly
been denied permission to leave due
to her father's scientific knowledge.
Several universities, such as the
Massachusetts Institute .of'echnol-
ogy, have extended lifetime lecturing

invitations to Alexander Paritsky, an
oceanographer, upon his departure
from the Soviet Union.
The quality of life for the Parit-
sky family has improved somewhat
since Alexander's release from a
Siberian labor camp in 1984, where
he had been imprisoned for "anti-
Soviet slander." Alexander, who lost
his oceanography job in 1977, has
been working as a stoker (feeder)
since his released from the camp in
1984.
P A R I T SK Y'S mother, for-
merly employed as a building and
bridge engineer, currently works
alongside her husband.
Though the family's home tele-
phone has been cut off for almost 10
years and mail service curtailed for
the last seven as a result of the cou-
ple's activities, Paritsky says her

parents are aware of the concern
people have worldwide for the fate of
the refuseniks.
"My parents receive many letters
from many parts of the world. Al-
though they do not receive anything
officially, information comes to
them from other channels," she said.
"I'm not really free because my
family must stay in the Soviet
Union. One part is here and another
part there. Now I'm here because I
must help my parents to get
permission (to emigrate). They can't
stay in the Soviet Union and be
separated. We just want to live like
other people," she said.
Paritsky thinks that her father,
who has a serious heart condition
from the three years he spent in
solitary confinement without cloth-
ing in a sub-zero isolation cell, must
gain his release soon. This determi-
nation to see her family has shaped
everything she does.
OUT OF THE 200,000
marchers, many expressed a sense of
unity after listening to several of the
speeches at the rally.
"This gathering of so many
thousands of people - Jews and
Christians, ... Blacks and whites
underscores the extraordinary concern
for the fate of our brothers in the
Soviet Union," said Israeli ambas-
sador to the United States Moshe
Arad.
"This rally is marvelous. It's an
incredible showing of our solidarity
for Soviet Jews," said Baltimore
resident Irving Sanow who partici-
pated in the rally.
Sixth-grader Steven Harris said
the march made him feel closer to
the remaining refuseniks.
"Today I have a great feeling of
unity, that we're all here together,
driving together like one big, giant
Jew. This means we can help other
Jews to get away from the Soviet
Union and lead normal lives like
us," the Maryland resident said.
WORLD WAR I veteran Ber-
nard Sobin added he didn't "know
what the rally could do, but if
something comes out of it, I want to
1--mn tnit