Cancer research specialist Dr. losif Irlin, 52, a refusenik since 1981, has declared a hunger strike to protest Soviet refusal to grant him and his wife permission to leave, according to the National Conference on Soviet Jewry. Irlin, a world-renowned scientist, who worked at the Oncological Center of the USSR Academy of Medicine, was fired from his job when he applied for an exit visa to Israel in April 1979, as was his wife, Svetlana, also a scientist.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
