He could be your own son. your neighbor. or a close friend. He should be someone Just beginning to savor all that life has to offer the young. But because he is a Soviet Jew. who was active in the Jewish movement and yearned to emigrate to Israel. he is serving a 12year prison term in a Russian labor camp. His name is Iosif Mondelevich and I have adopted his cause as my own under the auspices of the Greater New York Conference. on Soviet Jewrys "Adopt a Prisoner Program." Now losif is a member of my family. His plight began in 1967 when he filed the first of three applications for permission to emigrate to Israel where he hoped to join family and friends. Three times he filed such forms. and three times he was denied permission to emigrate. In 1970. after the last request for permission to emigate was denied. he was arrested by Soviet authorities on contrived charges that he had participated in an alleged hijacking. His only crime. in actuality. was to file an application to emigrate to Israel. Yet. he was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor. and only consistent public pressure helped reduce his sentence to 12 years in the prison camp. Iosif spends his time at hard labor. often working overtime during the week. because he remains a deeply religious person and does not want to break the Sabbath by working.
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emigrate