Newspaper Page Text
THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE November 21, 1986 Page 7
Former refusnik feels duty to Soviet friends
Aleksandr Kushnir, left, talks to Georgia Tech student at rally.
by Richard Bono
TSl staff writer
Aleksandr Kushnir would like
American Jews to pay more at
tention to those Soviet refusniks
who are not high-profile scient
ists, engineers or educators.
Rather, says the former refusnik,
now living in Israel, “1 want
American Jews to pay more at
tention to the ordinary refusnik,
those who aren't leaders in big
cities, like Moscow and Lenin
grad.”
Kushnir, 39, waited 13 years to
emigrate to Israel from the small
Soviet city of Odessa, where he
was a construction worker. His
mother and his brother, who is
now a captain in the Israeli Army.,
emigrated to Israel in 1973 and
Olga Goldfarb
visiting father
by Susan Birnbaum
he has longed to join them ever
since. He finally did in August of
this year, just two and a half
months ago.
“I understand it would be bet
ter for me to be now in Israel,
studying and learning a new way,”
said Kushnir in broken English.
“But 1 travel now in America to
explain to people the hard situa
tion for Jews in Russia and how
my friends are asking for their
help. It is my duty.” He added,
“It is impossible for me to imagine
that I am free and my friends in
the Soviet Union are not.'
Kushnir visited The Southern
Israelite while in Atlanta to join
in the local protest of the treat
ment of Jews in the Soviet U nion
during the recent U.S.S.R.—
Georgia Tech exhibition basket
ball game here.
The Atlanta Jewish Federation,
which coordinated the protest,
said the peaceful demonstration
was conducted to draw attention
to the plight of Soviet Jewry, not
to protest the cultural/athletic
exchange between the U.S. and
the U.S.S.R., which the Federa
tion said it applauds.
Kushnir’s trip to Atlanta, which
was sponsored by the National
Conference on Soviet Jewry
(NCSJ), was one of seven Amer
ican cities the ex-refusnik visited
on behalf of NCSJ.
American demonstrations in
support of Soviet Jewry, Kush
nir said, do have an impact. “The
Soviets are afraid of losing face,”
he said. “New Gorbachev policy
wants them to look better. They
are looking for attention from
the West. It's very important to
them to look respectable.”
Marches and vocal demonstra
tions, like the Georgia Tech bas
ketball game protest, Kushnir
indicated, should go hand in hand
with quiet diplomacy. He also
urges American Jews to do more
of what he called “morale help.”
“Letters and visits from Amer
icans to Jews in the Soviet Union
are very important,” he said “I
remember my first meeting with
American Jews in the Soviet
Union. It was very encouraging.
You know that somebody cares
about you.”
After traveling around the
United States for the National
Conference on Soviet Jewry,
Kushnir said he will return to
Israel, where he has no solid
plans “except to be a good Jew,
to maybe marry and to have a
family and a little quiet life.”
NEW YORK (JTA)—Olga
Goldfarb, daughter of the Soviet
emigre David Goldfarb, arrived
in New York Sunday for a one-
week visit with her father, who is
recuperating here from lung can
cer surgery. She was granted a
one-week temporary visa by So
viet emigration authorities last
week, a move considered unus
ual for a refusnik whose applica
tion to permanently emigrate from
the Soviet Union was concur-
renty pending.
David Goldfarb's seven-year
ordeal as a refusnik was abruptly
terminated Oct. 16 when indus
trialist Armand Hammer flew
him and his wife Cecilia to the
United States aboard his private
jet. The 67-year-old retired genet
icist was a patient in a Moscow
hospital, suffering from compli
cations of diabetes and heart
disease.
Upon his arrival in New York,
he was immediately admitted
to Columbia-Presbyterian Med
ical Center where tests Oct. 29
revealed lung cancer. On Nov. 2,
David Goldfarb sent a letter to
Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev
asking that his daughter, who
remained behind in Moscow, be
allowed to emigrate to join him
in New York with her husband,
Yuri Lev, and two daughters,
Katya, 10, and Nadia, 4.
Goldfarb was scheduled for
surgery Nov. 5, and Columbia-
Presbyterian was asked to pro
vide that information to the
Soviets. Olga then applied for
permission for a temporary tour
ist visa to visit her father in the
hospital, and was told on Nov. 11
to report to the OV1R emigra
tion office two days later to pick
up her passport, which contained
a visa good for one week’s stay.
The 34-year-old pediatrician was
given permission only for herself
and was refused permission to
bring along her older daughter,
as she had requested.
Olga told reporters at a news
conference at Kennedy Airport
that the granting of the emer
gency visa “happened so quickly.
I didn’t think I would get it, but I
did. The Soviet Union is unpre
dictable.” She also said her par
ents’ release “is considered a mir
acle in Moscow,” and that she
believes her visa is part of that
miracle.
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