The plight of separated families will be observed in Moscow by refuseniks on June 1, International Children’s Day. Simultaneous discussion meetings, coordinated by Jewish Women Against Refusal (JEWAR), are planned for that day in the apartments of prominent refuseniks.
Families of children under 16 will discuss the problem of Jewish education and their children’s emotional stress at the apartment of Viktoria and Andrei Lifshitz.
The issue of adult children (over age 18) who were allowed to apply for emigration visas for themselves will be the topic at the apartment of Rimma and Evgeny Yakir.
Parents of children who have already left the Soviet Union will be discussed at the apartment of Silvia and Yuri Fiskin.
Parents of children who have emigrated will be the subject at the apartment of Freda and Vladimir Melamed.
Three Soviet Jewry activist organizations in the United States — the Coalition to Free Soviet Jewry, the National Council for Soviet Jewry, and the Union of Councils for Soviet Jewry — provided the names of the families who will host the gatherings, and all the groups relayed the participants’ request for maximum publicity, including notifying local newspapers in the U.S. and cables and phone calls to the individual apartments where the discussions will take place, at the time of the meetings, 5 p.m. Moscow time. People are urged to contact any of the three groups to get phone numbers and additional information.
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