In two surprise moves last week, Soviet authorities allowed a prominent Jewish scientist and his wife and the family of a cancer victim who is now living in Israel to leave the Soviet Union. David Goldfarb and his wife Cecilia were given permission to leave last Wednesday. (See separate story.) Two days later, the entire family of Viktor and Inessa Flerov were notified that they could leave. For the Flerov family, permission to emigrate ended an eight-month ordeal.
Inessa Flerova’s brother, Michael Shirman, 31, is a leukemia patient living in Israel whose sole chance of survival rests on a possible bone-marrow transplant from his sister, his only sibling, who lives in Moscow. The information about the Flerov family was confirmed by the U.S. State Department.
Inessa Flerova and her two daughters, Dariya, 7, and Mariana, 5, were granted exit visas at the end of August, but Soviet officials would not allow them to leave with Viktor, citing his father’s refusal to grant him a waiver of financial obligation.
Shirman had told Flerova not to leave without her husband, thereby separating the family on his account. Viktor Flerov and his father had had little contact, if any, in years. Flerova first applied for a temporary visa last February, and was repeatedly given conflicting advice about emigration visas by Soviet officials. Both Inessa and Viktor went on hunger strikes to protest against the official stonewalling.
Shirman came to the United States last week for two days following a visit to Iceland during the summit meeting between President Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, where he pleaded his case with American and Soviet officials. Last Thursday, he told a press conference on Capitol Hill that he has been given about a month to live unless he receives the transplant.
A DRAMATIC DEVELOPMENT
In a dramatic development immediately preceding a press conference in the Lincoln Square Synagogue in New York, Shirman received a phone call from the wife of Dr. Kenneth Prager, a Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital cardiopulmonary physician, who is attending to both Shirman and Goldfarb, telling Shirman that his wife Anka had called from Israel with news that Flerova had called her from Moscow. Shirman immediately called Anka and she said she understood that the entire Flerov family had received permission to emigrate to Israel.
Shirman said his wife was hesitant to confirm the conversation because she doesn’t speak Russian and that the language problem may have created a misunderstanding. But after answering a series of questions from the press, Shirman called his sister in Moscow and confirmed the news.
If all goes well, the Flerovs may be airborne some time this week, he said. But some news reports from Moscow noted that it might take up to two weeks for them to leave. Lynn Singer, director of the Long Island Committee for Soviet Jewry and former president of the Union of Councils for Soviet Jews (UCSJ), sponsors of Shirman’s trip to the U.S., said Shirman would receive chemotherapy while he is staying in New York for the Succoth holiday and would then be placed aboard the first plane possible for Israel.
THE NEXT STEP
Shirman told reporters that if the Flerovs do meet him in Israel, the next step is to “start my own ‘normal’ problem.” He was referring to the bone-marrow transplant, which first must be okayed by testing his sister’s blood compatibility. Shirman stressed the seriousness of the operation and the possibility of failure, and the long period of time he would be watched for signs of rejection. Shirman said the operation would take place at Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem.
Shirman has been able to maintain a level and sometimes cheerful mood during his medical crisis. But he underlined that his leukemia is in the final stage and told reporters that he might have had a better chance of recovery if the Soviets had not procrastinated about allowing the entire Flerov family to leave last February. He is given only a 30 percent chance of survival now even with the bone-marrow transplant. He has been receiving daily blood tests, and chemotherapy administered by Dr. Prager, during his stay here. Prager has taken a personal interest in this case as well as that of Goldfarb.
Armand Hammer, the American industrialist who played a role in the release of Goldfarb, was asked if he was also involved in the Flerov case. He told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency: “This is part of the same goodwill gesture shown by the Soviets with the Goldfarb release. I brought it to the attention of the Soviets when I heard from Dr. Prager some time ago.” Prager wrote to Hammer in August, detailing Shirman’s condition and the plight of the Flerov family.
In that letter, Prager asked that Hammer, during his trip to the USSR last month, intervene “as forcefully as possible” and “as soon as possible” to convince the Soviets that allowing the Flerovs to leave would be the “humane thing to do.”
UCSJ president Pam Cohen, in a statement, said: “While we are gratified by the decision (to let the Flerov family emigrate), the members and Board of the UCSJ remain profoundly disturbed by the Soviet Union’s continued refusal to allow emigration for the estimated 400,000 Soviet Jews who wish to do so. We see no reason why the Soviet government continues to delay in these matters, and we urge Soviet authorities to expedite emigration procedures for all Soviet Jewish citizens who wish to go.”
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.
