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PAGE 20RH THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE October 3, 1986 j"** Happy Rosh Hashana ^**5 I from the offices of • Wayne P. Kaplan, C.P.A. Sharon and Wayne Kaplan L 3379 Peachtree Rd., N.W., Suite 655 v Altanta, GA 30326 266-8865 J ROBERT B. WILENSKY, CPA [*) W5J ® rosky & Co.,P.C. Certified Public Accountant* 1400 Lake Hearn Drive Suite 225 Atlanta, Georgia 30319 404-843-5590 Robert and Ava Wilensky SHANA TOVA M’TUKAH A SWEET AND HAPPY NEW YEAR Mr. Robert Wilensky, President Mr. Jay Kessler, Vice President Mr. Robert Arogeti, Treasurer Dr. Aaron Shatzman, Program Director Ms. Lisa Rinzler, Secretary Ms. Gayle Ligon-Kikov, Administrative Assistant Sponsored b> The Atlanta Jewish Federationn. - .hum »..l.» tiaiB rilh llillel Foundation*. r\ With sincere wishes for a happy and healthy New Year from the Officers of B’nai B'rith District Five iSfci Bernard L. Friedman Wayne A. Martin Dr. Henry Ray Wengrow Fred Snyder Michael Jaul Neil C. Rosen Kent E. Schiner Tommy P. Baer President President-elect First Vice-President Second Vice-President Third Vice-Pres./Treasurer Executive Vice-President International Senior Vice-Pres. International Vice-President International Board of Governors Judge Paul L. Backman Lou Hymson Philip Kershner Arnold D. Ellison Honorary Executive Vice-Pres. Jewish Family Services operating Jewish Family and Children’s Bureau and Ben Massell Dental Clinic On behalf of our staff and board members, we wish all of you a peaceful New Year filled with good health & happiness. Dale M. Schwartz, President Leonard L. Cohen, Executive Director llyinko: o villQQ£ of refusniks by Michael Sabin JTA More than a thousand Jewish refusniks in one Soviet village? The 1,300 religious, traditionally observant Jews of Ilyinka, a sovk hoz (farming collective) in the So viet Union, constitute a unique phenomenon—for the majority of them long desperately to go to Israel. Yet no one has been allowed to even apply for an emigration visa at the local OVIR (emigration of fice) in Voronezh for several years. And the sovkhoz chairman, Alexei Kuvaldin, has adamantly refused to issue character references and statements that an exit applicant did not owe the collective any money. He has refused to deliver the vyzovi (official invitations sent by Israeli relatives which are pre requisite to beginning the applica tion to emigrate. And so, the Jews of Ilyinka, even those who have not formalized their applications for exit visas to be reunited with their close rela tives in Israel—as is their right, guaranteed by the Helsinki Accords Basket Three, which the Soviets signed, as well as other interna tional “guarantees”—are de facto refusniks. Although Ilyinka is 1000 miles from Moscow in the heart of rural Russia, the Ilyinka Jews hold fast to religious tradition in the face of official censure. They keep the sab bath and the dietary laws, observe the chagim, pray three times a day, circumcise newborn sons, bake their own matzot, and maintain their orthodoxy in hostile environment. In the early 1970s a few Ilyinka families managed to move away from the sovkhoz to Baku -where they were successful in their appli cation for the reunification of di vided families. They are now living in Jerusalem—absorbed into Israeli society, speaking Hebrew fluently, with their sons and daughters studying in yeshivot, and serving in tzava. In 1976, five Ilyinka families, numbering 42 individuals, attemp ted to protest the Soviet authori ties’ refusal to grant them exit visas by a “work stoppage.” They de manded that they be allowed to withdraw from the collective farm and move to a place where emigra tion to Israel might be possible. (As members of the collective, they are, in effect, “serfs,” who are not permitted to change their legal res idence without official permis- s i on —which was not forthcoming.) Of the five “striking families,” only the family of Yakov Isaievich Matveev was inexplicably granted exit visas in August 1980. They now live in Neve Yakov, in Jerusa lem. Other Ilyinka Jews, who attempt ed to keep their children out of school as protest against their “en forced serfdom” were threatened with the loss of parental rights and custody—and their children were taken to school by force. Moreover, the authorities drafted the sons of all those who actively expressed their desire to go to Israel—to intimidate them from even attempt ing to apply to emigrate. There has been little letter and telephone communication with the Jews of Ilyinka in the last few years. Isolated and insular, their morale is very low. They feel “cut off,” removed from the outside world, and far removed from the mainstream of Jewish life. Unfor tunately, the current impasse for the many thousands of Soviet Jewish families who have assumed the unwelcome, nerve-wracking status of refusniks applies even more so to these isolated Jews of Ilyinka. L' Shana To Fa The Southern Israelite _Ap PHILIP PHILIP MITCHELL STEVE NEWFIELD • PAUL COHEN Rosh Hashana Greetings Advertising Specialties • Business Gifts • Premiums • Calendars • Pm - Pencils • Caps • Key Ins • Buttons Badges • Decals Bumper Stickers • T Skirts • Matches • Ugkters • taarl Plaques • Faeecy Piet tits • Conrte bee/Trail VISIT OUR OFFICES AND SHOWROOM «NsnoM SHIMf 451-5616 12IS AT CHAMBIEE DUMDODV DO 1745 OLD SPRING HOUSE LN„ DUNWOODY ^Begt QAAskeg a ‘Skfappy o\leu/ QJea/t Abrams Industries Inc. Founded 1925