Shcharansky Begins 10-day U.S. Visit; Says He Will Speak out About Those He Left Behind in the Sovie

Former Soviet Jewish Prisoner of Conscience Anatoly Shcharansky arrived in the United States Thursday for the beginning of a dramatic ten-day visit which will include a meeting with President Reagan next week in Washington and an appearance at this Sunday’s 15th annual Solidarity Sunday rally for Soviet Jewry here.

“I’m going to speak out about those I left behind me in Russia,” Shcharansky told reporters at a news conference after arriving at Kennedy International Airport, referring to the more than 20,000 Jews who have been refused permission to emigrate and the some 400,000 who have begun the emigration process and seek to leave the Soviet Union.

Shcharansky also thanked President Reagan for helping to secure his release last February as part of an exchange of East-West prisoners. In addition, he said he believed progress on the Soviet Jewry emigration issue can be achieved through better U.S.-Soviet relations.

He said the “atmosphere of trust” needed between the two superpowers to facilitate increased emigration can be achieved by the Soviet Union’s adherence to its human rights commitments, such as the Helsinki-Accord. “The Helsinki Accord is a very good example of an agreement which was signed but was never fulfilled in the Soviet Union,” he said.

The 38-year-old mathematician arrived in Israel on February 11 from the Soviet Union, where he served nine years of a 13-year prison sentence for alleged treason and anti-Soviet propaganda. His wife Avital, 35, did not accompany him to the U.S. on the advice of her doctors. Avital is in her second month of pregnancy.

FULL OF IMPORTANT MEETINGS

Shcharansky, greeted at the airport by a throng of students and community supporters of the Soviet Jewish emigration movement, also told reporters that “this trip will be short but full of important meetings.” While in New York, he will meet with Mayor Edward Koch, who called Shcharansky in Israel after his arrival there and invited him to visit the Big Apple.

In addition, before leaving for Washington next week, Shcharansky will address a meeting of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, the umbrella group of 40 national Jewish groups. Presidents Conference chairman Kenneth Bialkin said here that the Jewish community will “never acquiesce in silence to their (Soviet Jewry’s) suffering.”

But certainly the most dramatic appearance will be at the Soviet Jewry rally here Sunday, which will begin with a march along Fifth Avenue and conclude with an enormous rally at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza across from the United Nations. While last year’s rally drew some 200,000 persons, rally organizers are predicting that nearly half-a-million persons will greet Shcharansky this time.

Only 72 Jews emigrated from the Soviet Union in April, 25 more than were allowed to leave in March, according to statistics provided by the National Conference on Soviet Jewry. Of the 72 April emigrants, 18 went to Israel. This low total of emigrants going to Israel has been cited by some observers as a reason for the Soviets’ allowing just a small number of Jews to leave each month.