6 — tBeBULLETIN — Thursday. July 12, 1979
BY BARBARA SHUMIATCHER
Meetings at this Policy Conference were so lively. Every session was pervaded by the feeling that the situation for Soviet Jews is at a turning point.
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Several former Prisoners of Zion were in attendance. Mark Dymshiis looked much better, not quite so painfully thin as he was at the time of the exchange. His iron grey crew cut — instead of the youthful shock of black hair in his pre-Leningrad photos — is a sad reminder of his long ordeal.
Mark answered questions tirelessly, remained after sessions to cha|, and stressed always how important it , is to keep writing to those left behind. Asked how he managed to study Hebrew in labor camp and prison, he explained how those who knew some Hebrew taught the others, how smuggled texts were sometimes confiscated for months to be checked for **Zionist propa-. ganda.**
He ended his story with an ironic witticism accompanied by the ghost of a smile. His voice was quiet, his expression generally grave, but this
little joke came across even before Shimon Levit had time to translate:
"Well, you know, we worked and studied together, we helped one another . . . just like on kibbutz.**
Mark Dymshits asked that concerned persons in the Diaspora write to his three fellow prisoners (Leningrad 1970): losif Mendelevich, Uchr 5110/1 UE, Moscow, RSFSR, USSR; Yuri Fedorov, Uchr. 5110/lzh. Kh, Moscow, RSFSR, USSR; Alexi Murshenko, Uchr. 5110/lzh. Kh, Moscow, RSFSR, USSR.
A word about these people:
losif Mendelevich manages to remain an orthodox Jew even in the dread Chistipol prison — he ate only matzoh and water during Pesach this year.
At an earlier Seder, a friend, Shimon Grilius, reports: **We read from one Haggadah, the only copy
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Editors Note: Barbara Shumiat-cher, an active member of the Vancouyer Committee for Soviet Jewry, recently attended a policy conference of tlie National Conference on Soviet Jewry. Siie recounts some highlights of that conference, held in Washington, D.C., in this and in subsequent articles.
we had, and when we reached Korakh, we had nothing to put between the matzot. Then losif Mendelevich said, *We do not need a symbol of our suffering. We have here a real suffering, and that we shall put between the matzot*.**
Yuri Fedorov and Alexi Mur-zhenko are non-Jews who have allied themselves with the Jewish cause in the Soviet Union. "They helped us, now we must help them. They have no other spokesman," Mark said.
Anatoly Sharansky*s wife Avital was pale, extremely pensive in repose, but animated in conversation. Despite evidence that Anatoly is seriously ill. Avital remains calm at least outwardly. Attempts were
made to get her appointments with officials going to Vienna for the SALT summit.
Letters of concern for Anatoly Sharansky stating that the vi^riter is aware of Sharansky*s grave physical condition, severe headaches, loss of weight and fever, and asking that he be taken immediately to a hospital and given medical attention, should be sent to: Rt. Hon. Flora Mac-Donald, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Parliament Buildings, Ottawa, Ontario; Minister of Health, Boris Petrovsky, Rehmanovsky Per. 3, Moscow RSFSR, USSR; Secretary General Leonid Brezhnev, Kremlin, Mosc<^ RSFSI^. Additionally, letters should be forwarded to Vancouver MF*s at the Parliament Buildings, Ottawa. Canadian officials should be asked to intercede with the Soviet Ambassador, Dr. Yakovlev.
Rivka Drori was at the conference on behalf of her brother, losif Mendelevich. A modest person, Rivka seems to prefer action to words. Her next stop was Vienna to demonstrate at the summit talks. After that, she was not sure, but would like to return to Israel before her child is bom, about two months from now.
Leonid Slepak is 21. He requested that letters be written to his father in exile who this past spring fought off repeated bouts of pneumonia. The address is: Valdimir Slepak, Pochta Do Vostrebovania, Selo Tsokto Khaingil 674466, Aginsky Rayon, Chitinskaya Oblast, RSFSR, USSR.
Leonid speaks English well. He praised the courage of friends who remained in contact with his activist father. He stated: "During all those years there were KGB agents who checked and bugged our apartment. My father was followed in the streets, so they know with whom he was meeting. He is well known and gets many letters.'*
All of the former prisoners agreed on the importance of the letters — letters to POCs and refuseniks, letters to MP*s and cabinet ministers, letters to Soviet officials and ambassadors.
In addition to the Russian Jews, who give these meetings such a sense of urgency and hope, there were of course, many leaders from the U.S. and Canada.
Charlotte Jacobson of the World Zionist Organization, reported on the recent World Conference in Italy. William Korey of B'nai B'rith,
and one-third will perish.**
All persons present were determined that this threat shall never come to pass, but the sense of this gathering was that it cannot be ignored.
Shimon Levit, a former Prisoner of Zion presently on exchange at MIT from Ben-Gurion Institute, warned that increasing restrictions against Soviet Jews in secondary education is extremely dangerous.
Others quoted the leading Moscow activists who state that the recent rise in emigration is the result, not of a change in Soviet policy, but of the enormous increase in the number of applications. The ratio— visas requested: visas granted — remains the same, at about four to one.
The conference heard reports indicating that the list of long-term refuseniks grows by scores of persons each month, and at least five more Jews have recently been imprisoned on trumped-up charges. Meanwhile anti-Semitism intensifies and new impediments to emigration are legislated.
Simcha Jacobovici, chairman of the North American Jewish Students Network, stressed the importance of training new leaders and especially young people. He pointed out that the Arabs pour money into North American campuses and align themselves with leftist groups which have a strong appeal to youth. "The Jewish people must be sure that their case is heard too, and should give youth leadership training top priority in funding,** he stated.
Informal talks confirmed that this conviction is widely held and there is great concern that youth programs are often short of funds.
PRISONER OF ZION
MARK NASHPITS, 31, a Moscow dentist, was arrested together with Boris Tsitlionok outside the Lenin Library in Moscow in February, 1975, while publicly demanding the right to emigrate to Israel. Both men were tried and sentenced on the same day. The charge: violation of public order. The sentence: five years* exile. Mark Mashpits* real "crime** lay in is protests against the Soviet authorities' continued refusal of an exit-permit. It is now some eight years since he first applied for permission to emigrate. For his persistence, he has been exiled to the Chita region of Easter Siberia.
JCNS.
Leningrad refusnfk faces fait sentence
NEW YORK - Leningrad refus-nik Boris Kalendarov was slated to be tried shortly on draft evasion' charges, the National Conference on Soviet Jewry has learned. If convicted, Kalendarov, 21, faces a sentence of one-and-a-half to three years.
His trial will be the first of a
whose documented papers on anti- Jewish activist in Leningrad siiice
Semitism in the Soviet Union are well-known, quoted the chilling prediction of a former Chief Procurator of Moscow:
"The Jews? One-third will emigrate, orie^third will assimilate.
nine Jews were convicted of "anti-Soviet activity** in the infamous Second Leningrad Trial in May 1971.
He first applied to emigrate to - Israel in 1973 and ^as refused.^« »>