The National Conference on Soviet Jewry reported that a group of 12 Jewish women “refusniks” in Moscow confronted Soviet officials on emigration practices. The women, from divided families, demanded and were granted a meeting Jan. 27 with high-ranking officials responsible for emigration matters, including Albert Ivanov, a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, and Konstantin Zutov, the newly appointed chief of the national Office of Registration and Visas (OVIR).
The women comprised three categories of applicants: women separated from their children, children separated from parents, and women separated from relatives. As a result of the unusual meeting the women were promised a review of their applications within a month. They were also told that they would be given reasons for the refusals, or their estimated day of departure, the Conference reported.
In order to ensure that the officials’ promise would be implemented, a small, supervisory committee of representatives from the larger group was designated to monitor the requests. The group also appealed to Jewish communities throughout the world to give them and others in a similar situation as much support as possible, the Conference said.
Those who met with Soviet officials were, Anna Illenson, Dina Beilina, Yelena Dubianskaya, Irina Gildengorn, Yelena Gots, Faina Kogan, Natalia Khassina, Mikhaila Kiranovskaya, Lidiya Listerova, Natalia Rozenshtein, Larissa Vilenskaya and Batsheva Elistratova.
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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.
