“Do not forget our fight, that is the message to all no matter what is your religion.”
This was the appeal made by Alexander Slepak Sunday as he ended a 17-day fast on the steps of the Capitol in support of the struggle of his parents, Vladimir and Maria Slepak, and other Jews to leave the Soviet Union.
Slepak ended his fast at a ceremony on the Capitol steps, one day before the 17th anniversary of his parents’ application to emigrate from the USSR. He lost 20 pounds during the fast.
More than 100 persons attended the ceremony and heard similar appeals from Elie Wiesel, the writer and Nobel Peace Laureate; Jeanne Kirkpatrick, former United States Ambassador to the Soviet Union; and representatives of the National Conference on Soviet Jewry (NCSJ), the Union of Councils for Soviet Jews, and the U.S. Committee to Free Vladimir Slepak.
They Stood behind a banner which quoted Vladimir Slepak as saying: “If you turn your eyes from us, even for a moment, we will cease to exist.”
Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor, stressed that “nothing is so terrifying to a prisoner or to an exiled person than to feel that no one cares.”
“WE WANT DEEDS AND NOT THE WORDS”
Slepak, a 35-year-old medical student at Temple University, Philadelphia, said that “with all my heart I want to believe” in Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev’s promises of democratization and “glasnost” (openness). But, “we want the deeds and not the words,” he declared.
He noted that his father, who had also fasted in front of the Soviet Presidium in Moscow, was attacked by Soviet police Saturday and told he was under house arrest and would be beaten and arrested if he tried to leave his apartment. But on Sunday, he was allowed to leave the apartment.
The elder Slepaks are scheduled to attend a seder at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow Monday night where they are expected to meet with Secretary of State George Shultz. The Secretary visited briefly with Alexander Slepak last week and took pictures of his two children to show the Slepaks who have never seen their grandchildren.
Kirkpatrick said that “We would be concerned with the Slepaks if they were the only Soviet citizens denied their rights … They are not unique.”
She said glasnost “has still not altered the plight of the Jewish community” which is denied Jewish schools and Jewish history books and the right to freely practice its religion. She said the Soviet Union still imprisons Hebrew teachers, attacks Zionism and continues to lead the effort in international forums to brand Zionism as racism.
“If it (the Soviet Union) uses its great force against its own citizens … how can we possibly expect that it will not use that force against any people, any country that is weaker than it,” she said. She added that no one who is “concerned” about peace and arms control cannot be concerned about the Soviet violations of human rights.
OPENNESS CONTRADICTED BY RESTRICTIONS
Micah Naftalin, executive director of the UCSJ, also noted that “a nation that makes war on its innocent citizens, a nation that cannot keep its solemn international agreements even in human rights, can hardly be trusted to keep any other kind of agreement. So it is a measure of how fearful our own society can become when we hear expressions of hope and relief based only on soothing Soviet propaganda and the release of a handful of our enslaved brethren.”
He stressed that while there is talk of openness, “restrictions on the right to emigrate are ominously being expanded.”
Wiesel asked if the Slepaks are being denied exit visas because they were among the first to seek emigration and now the Soviets demand “they should be the last.”
Slepak said his parents have suffered enough, noting that they were 43 when they first applied and are now 60 years old.
Mark Levin, the NCSJ’s Washington representative, said this is “not an end, not a beginning, but a continuation” of the struggle for the Slepaks and other Soviet Jews. He expressed the hope that the traditional ending of the seder, “Next year in Jerusalem” will mean for Soviet Jews “This year in Jerusalem.”
The event on the Capitol steps Sundays was led by Nathan Levinthal of the Committee to Free Slepak, which presented Shultz last week with a petition signed by some 10,000 persons urging him to make a personal appeal for the Slepaks to Gorbachev. Shultz has promised to do so as well as for other Soviet Jews, including those suffering from cancer who want to be reunited with their families.
In addition to his meeting with Shultz, he also met with House Speaker Jim Wright (D. Texas), who is leading a Congressional delegation to the Soviet Union this week.
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.
