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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. vlfl — Your Fabric Care Expert Since 1936 ^ __ .i Atlanta’s Leading Drycleaning Professional Now At Toco Hills Atlanta's leading drycleaning professional has opened a new loca tion in the Toco Hills Shopping Center. The same quality and service that made our Buckhead locations Atlanta's most trusted fabric care centers can now be enjoyed by Toco Hills residents. 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