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9t(i eAmutaC ^B/iidaQ $ssue The Southern Israelite The Weekly Newspaper For Southern Jewry • Since 1925 Vol. LXII Atlanta, Georgia, Friday, February 14, 1986 No. 7 C > rr, c o -> c > Co This year in Jerusalem Wearing a knitted yarmulke given him after he arrived in Israel, Anatoly Shcharansky is carried to the Western Wall on the shoulders of well-wishers. NEW YORK, (JTA) — The release Tuesday of Soviet Jewish Prisoner of Conscience Anatoly Shcharansky as part of an East- West exchange of prisoners brings to a close one of the most cele brated human rights cases which drew international attention and the concern of numerous govern ment leaders and politicians. Nearly nine years after he was bundled into a car by Soviet secret police agents on Gorky Street in Moscow, to later be tried on charges of treason, in a move by Soviet authorities with few pre cedents since the days of Stalin, Shcharansky's name became syn onymous with Soviet human rights violations and the harsh realities of life for Jews in the Soviet Union. Now, he has been reunited with his wife Avital, who emigrated from the Soviet Union in July 1974, just one day after they were married by a rabbi in Moscow, a marriage Soviet officials later de clared invalid. Although she has not seen her husband since that time, Avital’s tireless effort on his behalf is credited with keeping Shcharansky’s name in the fore front of international public opinion. Born in the Ukrainian city of Donetsk on January 20, 1948, the son of a journalist and Communist Party member, Shcharansky gradu ated from the Moscow Institute’s Physics Department ofComputers and Applied Mathematics in June 1972. An expert in computer tech nology and cybernetics, he began work for a research institute con nected with the oil and gas industry. Shcharansky’s application to emi grate was denied in 1974 on the grounds that “it is against state interests.” He soon became the subject of continuous harassment, surveillance and interrogation as he joined the growing ranks of Soviet Jewish refusniks. At times, as many as eight KGB agents trailed him to monitor his acti vities. In early 1975, he was fired from his job at the Moscow Re search Institute. In March 1975, after a series of arrests, he was reported informed by the KGB. “Your destiny is in our hands ... No one in the West is interested in you and what you are doing here and nobody will say a word in the entire world if there is one more Prisoner of Conscience in the Soviet Union.” by David Kantor BONN, (JTA) — Anatoly Shcharansky stepped into the world of freedom Tuesday. The 38- year-old Soviet Jewish dissident and aliya activist who became a symbol of the worldwide struggle for human rights during his eight- year ordeal in Soviet prisons and forced labor camps, arrived in Israel Tuesday night to a hero’s welcome. Shcharansky was released by the Soviets Tuesday morning iit con junction with an East-West spy swap and was flown immediately from West Berlin to Frankfurt. There he was reunited with his wife Avital, who flew from Israel to meet him. It was in Frankfurt, too, that he received his Israeli pass port, presented to him personally by Israel’s Ambassador to West Germany, Yitzhak Ben Ari. Ana toly had first applied for Israeli citizenship in 1974. The prisoner exchange took Shcharansky became active in the Helsinki watch groups formed to monitor Soviet compliance with place at the middle of the Glienicker Bridge which connects West Berlin with Potsdam in East Germany. Shcharansky was arrested in 1978 allegedly for spying for the U.S. But the charges against him were regarded as patently false in the West. The 13-year sentence imposed, of which he served eight years, was seen as punishment for his activism on behalf of Jewish and otherdissidents and his indefa tigable struggle for the right of himself and other Russian Jews to emigrate. The exchange ceremonies were brief. Shcharansky, slight of build, wearing a grey coat and a brown “chapka," the traditional Rus sian fur cap, smiled and waved at the small crowd of reporters and spectators. He was surrounded by dozens of officials, greeted personally by U.S. Ambassador to West Ger many. Richard Burt, and whisked away to Tempelhof Airport in the the Helsinki rights accords More importantly, he served as a key link between Jews seeking to back seat of a grey Mercedes limou sine flying the Stars and Stripes on its fenders. At Frankfurt Airport he was allowed a half hour of privacy with Avital in the VIP lounge before the couple was surrounded by officials and jubilant well-wishers. They had not seen each other for 12 years, during which Avital campaigned tirelessly and unremittingly all over the world, but especially in the U.S. for release of her husband. Shcharansky’s spirit was never broken during his harsh ordeal in the Soviet Gulag. But for long periods it appeared he would not survive. He reportedly developed a heart condition. When Avital flew to Frankfurt from Israel she was accompanied by a cardiologist. But the doctor who examined Shcharansky at Frankfurt Airport said he found no medical problems and pronounced him fit to fly to Israel without delay. emigrate and Russians and others wanting to stay and liberalize the society. David Shipler, the New York Times correspondent in Moscow when Shcharansky was arrested, wrote in 1977 that “He was a con summate public relations man, fluent in English and scrupulously accurate with his facts, who acted as a spokesman to the Western press on behalf of Jewish activists. “As such, he was part of a chain that Soviet authorities ... found threatening, a chain of communi cations that runs from the dissi dents through Western corre spondents to worldwide publica tions and back into the Soviet Union again via foreign radio stations such as BBC and the Voice 0 of America.” | In 1977, Shcharansky filed suit 2 along with fellow activist Via- | dimir Slepak — whose emigration cc g visa has still not been approved — J and claimed that Soviet Jews were defamed as a result of the broad casts of a blatantly anti-Semitic television documentary, “Buyers of Souls,” which was apparently aimed at the Soviet masses. Shcharansky soon found himself the subject of a vicious attack in an article written by Dr. Sanya Lipavsky, a former roommate, and published in the Soviet newspaper Izvestia. Lipavsky accused the Soviet activist of working for the Central Intelligence Agency, a charge vehemently denied by Shcharansky, and also by then President Jimmy Carter. Ten days after the Izvestia article, Shcharansky was arrested and detained in Moscow’s Le fortovo Prison until his trial in July 1978. He was convicted on charges of “treason” and “anti- Soviet agitation and propaganda” and sentenced to 13 years in prison and labor camps. He began his term at Chistopol Prison, 500 miles east of Moscow. Throughout his 18-month deten tion, while awaiting trial, Shcharansky was held incommuni cado, unable to see or speak to anyone except the Soviet secret police. He was also not permitted legal counsel, despite relentless efforts by his family to secure an attorney for him See This year, page 19. 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