The Maryland House of Delegates in Annapolis last Thursday issued a proclamation honoring Soviet Jewish refusenik Iosif Begun “for his ability to endure extreme circumstances and duress.” Delegate Marilyn Goldwater (D. Montgomery) had proposed the proclamation in the lower house of the Maryland legislature at the suggestion of Jon Cohen, a senior at the University of Maryland, College Park.
Cohen has petitioned John Toll, president of the university, to grant Begun an honorary doctorate in Hebrew studies in absentia at the university’s May commencement. House Speaker Benjamin Cardin (D. Baltimore), who enabled the petition to be brought up on the crowded House calendar, also urged that an honorary degree be granted.
Begun, a 54-year-old engineer, was one of several Moscow refusenik Hebrew teachers when he was arrested for anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda in 1982. He was sentenced to seven years in prison and five years internal exile.
“In America, Hebrew teachers get tenure,” Cohen noted. “In the Soviet Union, Hebrew-teachers get 10 years.”
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