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PAGE 24 THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE October 24, 1986
Refusniks’ plight becomes personal crusade
by Richard Bono
TSI staff writer
As the Jewish community here
prepares for its show of solidar
ity with the Soviet Union, one
Atlanta resident typifies the
effort.
Marshall Hyatt has been writ
ing to Mark Friedlin and his fam
ily in the Soviet Union for nearly
three years. He has sent them
about 15 letters, but knows for
sure that only one has gotten
through.
Hyatt got interested in corre
sponding with a Soviet Jewish
family through his friend Steve
Berman, who is the local presi
dent of GRAN, the Grassroots
Action Network, which is a polit
ical arm of B’nai B’rith. Hyatt
then contacted the National Con
ference on Soviet Jewry to see
who he might write to and be
friend.
“I picked Mark Friedlin and
his family to help because Mark
is involved with biology. I am an
environmental engineer. I thought
we would have something in com
mon,” Hyatt said.
A specialist in applied mathe
matics and biology, Mark Fried
lin was fired from his job at Mos
cow University when he applied
for exit visas for himself and his
family. That was seven years ago
and he has not found permanent
employment since then. Accord
ing to his wife Valeria, Mark, his
son Boris, 21, and daughter J ulia,
From left, Mark, Boris and Valeria Friedlin.
about the plight of her family
and the status of their applica
tion for exit visas.
“It shows how desperate the
Friedlins are that they want
Ivanko’s help,” Hyatt said, add
ing that WGST officials had in
dicated their interest in pursuing
the Ivanko/Friedlin story further,
but that nothing has been done
to his knowledge.
Several attempts by The South
ern Israelite to discuss the situa
tion with Tom Houck, host of
WGSTs “Counterpoint,” have
been unsuccessful.
It is only through massive pub
licity efforts from the West that
many refusniks are finally allowed
to leave the Soviet Union, said
Hyatt in explaining why the
Friedlins would be asking for
help from an Atlanta radio sta
tion.
‘Anything helps,” Hyatt said.
‘When you’re trying to put pres
sure on somebody, the more peo
ple that know about it the better,
especially a radio personality.”
Valeria Friedlin noted in her
letter to Hyatt that several “sci-
entist-refusniks” were recently
released by the Soviet Union
primarily because of publicity
Campaigns from the United States
and other Western countries.
It is this kind of publicity for
the Friedlin family that Hyatt is
trying to generate.
“To me, Soviet Jewry is analo
gous to the Holocaust,” Hyatt
told The Southern Israelite. “I
read the book ‘The Abandon
ment of the Jews.’ Why didn’t
people do something? I’m trying
to do something on a personal
level—something, anything—so
that 30 years from now someone
doesn’t have to write a book
about us.”
10, are all on the “edge of des
pair” as they struggle to leave the
Soviet Union to live in Israel.
In the one letter Hyatt received
from the Friedlin family, Mark’s
wife, Valeria, noted an article she
had read in a Moscow news
paper. It was written by Serei
Ivanko, an official with the Soviet
news bureau in Moscow, who, in
an article entitled “The Arrogant
America and the Other Amer
ica,” wrote of his “propaganda
success” in Atlanta, Georgia.
Ivanko, on a nationwide tour
of America last spring, was a
guest on Atlanta radio station
WGST. Mrs. Friedlin quoted the
article as saying that during the
radio program Ivanko claimed
that statements questioning the
level of Soviet Jewry emigration
were products of anti-Soviet
propaganda and that in reality
everything is all right with Soviet
Jews.
Mrs. Friedlin, while distressed
that Atlanta Jews did not imme
diately rebut such statements,
nonetheless asked Hyatt to call
WGST radio and ask them to
contact Ivanko and question him
Workshop prepares young
leaders for Monday’s rally
American Jews can have a
powerful influence over the fate
of Soviet Jewry. That was the
message given to 75 participants
in a Young Leadership Council
program of the Atlanta Jewish
Federation last week.
The YLC program, designed
to prepare the Young Leadership
for participation in Monday’s
Simhat Torah Rally for Soviet
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Jewry, featured a panel of indi
viduals who recently returned
from a visit to the Soviet Union
to meet with refusniks.
Panel members Lynne and Jack
Halpern, Glenda Minkin and
Howard Sachs were among 18
Atlanta community members to
make the trip to the Soviet Union.
Their comments to the young
leaders included insights about
the general Soviet culture, refus-
nik lifestyles, a focus on Prisoner
of Zion Yuli Edelshtein and a
concluding briefing on what free
American Jews can do to help
ease the plight of Soviet Jewry.
A tape of Edelshtein’s wife,
Tanya, smuggled out of the Soviet
Union, was played, and a video
tape of Natan (Anatoly) Shcha-
ransky’s steps into freedom was
shown to demonstrate the influ
ence of action here in the United
States.
“Now is the time for each and
every one of us to vow to do his
or her share, to accept his or her
responsibility as free Jews, as
freedom-loving people, and to
continue working on behalf of
Soviet Jewry,” Mrs. Halpern, co-
chairman of the YLC, told the
program participants.
“The political atmosphere is
hot with talks of Soviet-American
relations,” she pointed out. “Now
is the time to pressure our elected
officials to link the issue of
human rights to East-West rela
tions.”
Mrs. Halpern, urging the group
to attend the upcoming rally,
said, “This is a case when numbers
do count.”
The program also included a
letter-writing campaign, with
each of the 75 participants writ
ing a personal letter to a U.S. or
Soviet leader to express concern
and support for Soviet Jewry.