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2 Soviet Jewish Refusniks Invited to Lecture at Rutgers

January 8, 1981
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— Gregory and Isai Goldstein, metrologists residing in Tbilisi, have been invited to lecture at the Rutgers University Center for Mathematical Sciences Research, it was announced here today by the Committee of Concerned Scientists. The invitation was offered on the ninth anniversary of the brothers’ initial application to emigrate from the Soviet Union by Prof. Joel Lebowitz, director of the university’s Center in New Brunswick, N.J. and a member of the Board of Directors of the Committee.

The Goldsteins have been repeatedly denied visas on grounds that they have knowledge of state secrets as a result of their work at the Tbilisi branch of the Mendeleyev Institute of Metrology. Western scientists who have protested their continued detention in the USSR point out that Soviet authorities have stated that only five years are required until state secrets can be declassified. But the Goldsteins were dismissed from their positions at the Institute nine years ago when they first applied to emigrate.

Throughout their nine year wait for visas to immigrate to Israel, the brothers have been subjected to unremitting personal and professional harassment, the Committee reported. Blacklisting has barred them from professional employment; their apartments have been searched; their mail is frequently intercepted; their phone service has been disconnected; and their internal passports have been confiscated.

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