ThufSday, October 27,1988 — THE BULLETIN — 9
Launien Moe Photo
EMOTIONAL REUNION: Unya Popok It greeted by his grandfather Isaac Blekher. The two had not seen each other for 13 YBars.
By DAVID FERMAN
Alia Popok wanted to bring her piano to Vancouver, but it would have meant remaining in Russia until next February. The piano stayed. Alia has waited long enough.
Since 1976, when her parents, Isaac and Anna Blekher, emigrated to Vancouver from Moscow, Alia, husband Lev and son Lenya have been denied visas to leave the Soviet Union. Now the families have been reunited after 13 years of hardship — the Popoks had applied 11 times to emigrate, Lev lost his job when he applied for the visas, and Lenya was imprisoned two years for selling a T-shirt.
tnterviewed three days after ariving, the Popoks and the Blekhers were still in a state of coVlectiveshock. Even though the city was bleak, wet and windy outside, inside the Blekhers* West End apartment the families couldn't stop beaming and exclaiming about Vancouver's beauty. -After  13  years, Isaac
EMUNAH WOMEN OF CANADA, Vancouver, will hold its next general meeting Sunday, Nov. 6, 8 p.m. at the home of Judy Epstein, 720 West 27 Ave. Guest speaker: National President Baila Aspler. Membership drive. Members may bring guests. Refreshments. Door prize. Information:. Esther, 872-5970.
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THE JEWISH BUSINESS AND PROFESSIONAL WOMEN'S GROUP will meet Tuesday, Nov, 1 at 7:30 p.m. at the JCCZack Gallery. Guest speakers, Barry Gorrin and Marilee Sigal from the Jewish Family Service Agency and Shirley Barnett from the Hebrew Assistance Association, will speak on "Fly Tze-dakah — Collect Bonus Points." RSVP by Friday, Oct. 28 at 266-8371.
B U*Q U EST JEWISH COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION will host an Oneg rShabbat on Oct. 28 at 7:30, p.m. in the Amenities room, Burnaby Court, 12th Ave. and Kingsway,Burnaby. Hebrew school students will present a short play based on the week's Torah portion. The event is open to the community. 1 nformation; 438-7740 or 520-1687. .
Blekheradmits that he did not dare get his hopes up, even when he heard the Popoks had plane tickets.
*'I waited until they were in my arms before I believed they were out," said the usually stoic Isaac.
Anna Blekher agreed. **I was afraid even when they were on the plane. Because even the plane is Soviet property."
After waiting so long and being denied numerous times, were the Popoks convinced they would never leave the USSR?
"Let's just say that when we got permission to leave we didn't believe it," Lev ioldThe Bulletin. He added that in recent months, under Gorbachev, it has become somewhat easier for divided families to reunite. ~
"When we visited Ovir (immigration office) it was a different relationship with the people there than in years past."
The Popoks' highest priority now is to master English.
"We don't want to feel like iminigrants our whole lives, but like real Canadians," asserted Lev.
Once English is conquered Alia would like to return to teaching music to children.
Lenya, 23, wants to complete university.
"I had wanted-to be a mining engineer. Now I'm not so sure."
And Lev?
"I'd like to change_out of these clothes; Our luggage still hasn't arrived," he joked.
Speaking for his family.
Lev thanked "allJewish people whose support we have felt."
The Blekher household has already undergone major changes with two families now under the same roof.
"We are looking for furniture, and we have found them an apartment nearby. We are going to manage," Isaac says, scanning the crowded apartment.
The real change," as Anna sees it, "is now my husband talks. He opens his mouth. Before he was silent. And you should have seen my face before!" Sheassumes the clas-sieaLfrown of a tragic mask. I^ow I'm like a younger woman, inside and out;" ^lla believes the big change is that she now feels free.
As for the piano she left in Moscow, she will letthe music of her parents' voices fill her ears for the present.
"You can't help but feel good and safe with your parents."
JWBStan
A hundred volunteers manned phone lines provided through courtesy of a lengthy list of individual and corporate donors.
Horns w^t off, punctuating uncedsing xliti and signalling that a sizeable pledge had just been^cordedV
ICoroitiunity television Channel 4 cameras focussed oiico-hdsts Michael Levy and Gerry Kline while they inter-v yiewed all the beneiflciaries of the^Fbderation appeal as well as representatives of Feder-atioh-sponsbred programs, committees, executive members and campaign leaders.
TJie Bulletin cameraman tapped a path through the crowd but was waved away frofm the television area. Hence the assemblyjpf faces dominating the front page this week does not include, for example, the T.V. co-hosts on Sunday mornings Oct. 16!
The sum total of all the parts went to make up the annual telethon of the Combined Jewish Appeal known for several years how as Super Sunday.
It is, of course^ a reverse telethon. ^Volunteers phone potential~donors. _ . ii-This marks the second year that the Cablevision cbmpany has televised three hours of the proceedings — gratis to the Federation.
Co-chairs of Super Sunday, Hilary Benson and La:rry Rossoff, announced that the tally at the close bf the telethon's first three hours was some $50,000 in pledges. (As /IKfiwentjto press. Federation director Steve Drysdale disclosed that $ 138,260 was raised through Super Sunday from 1,746 pledges. This was a 37 percent increase over 1987 and included 388 first time donors.)
CJA chairs Gordon Dia-
mond and\ Judy Weinstein (Women's' Division) revealed during interviews that a lot of hard work characterized the current driVe. Diamond expressed the hope that the situation for canvassers of Repeated "calls back*^ would _become4he exception not the
Weinstein said Women's Division had 50 to 75 canvassers covering 3,900 cards to raise some 20 to 22 percent of the 19J88 target: $4-1 niillion.
She disclosed that the W.D. Cabinet (30 wpmen)_liks shown a 17 percent increase in giving and hoped this would be indicative of the rest of the drive.
Interviews with dozens of representatives from benefitting agencies and arms of Federation were interspersed with an array of videos.
One was vintage. Youthful beyond belief, entertainment world personalities appealed
for the fiist UJA campaign, after the lebiith of the State of JstaeL
Other videos hailed Israel at 40, focussed on the plight and partial rescue of Ethiopian Jews and showed comparable Federations at work iif the
::u.s.._.^ i
The EeCliaim Seniors Day Gaie ^^ntre in Vancoiiyer showed slides with Voice over^ artfuUy revealing their program and its operation, launched here in 1985.
The Federation Video was screened early on in the telecast. Frequent quality moments marked the interest-ing Old Song in a New Laridy produced, written and directed for Federation by Eli Gorn.
Marred by significant gaps and imbalances, the video is most successful in relating the story it was designed to tell: that of the emergence here less than two years ago of the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver.
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When the 2000 British. Columbians who v^^ill build the Vancouver Island Natural Gas Pipeline begin work early next year, residents on the Island and the Sechelt Peninsula will be about 24 months away from guaranteed energy ' savings. There's a significant difference between the cost of electricity or oil, and natural gas - a resource British Columbia measures in the trillions of cubic feet.
Jiist as important as savings in,home heating costs will be the impact.' of natural gas on the economy and the environment.
The cost of energy is a major factior in determining where new businesses will locate. The pipeline makes Vancouver Island and the
Sunshine Coast hot competitors for new industries and new jobs as well as making existing industry more efficient. And in the gas fielcjspf northeastern B.C. there will be stepped'up exploration and developrnerit to prepare for an increase of 10 to 15 per cent in the proviriceV gas sales.
For the environment -gas will cut air pollution. Gas has 50 per cent less potiential for acid rain than oil, and 90 per cent less grit and dust. For more information on British Columbia's growing economy, contact your MLA, your nearest Government Agents or write to the Ministry of Regional Development, Parliament Buildings, Victoria V8V 1X4.
Tbgethen A Better B.C
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