Each of these applications was rejected. as usual. without any official explanation. Yosif decided to discontinue his studies in the third year. fearing that his holding an engineering degree would reduce even more his chances of ever receiving permission to leave the Soviet Union. Yosif became acquainted with other Jews in Riga and Leningrad who. like himself. were interested in their Jewish heritage and wished to emigrate to Israel. He participated in the unofficialsamizdatpublication of the Jewish newspaper "Iton" and wrote a few articles. principally on religious questions. These were later cited as evidence that Yosif had published "antiSoviet propaganda." After the Mendelevich familys fourth application for permission to emigrate was rejected. Yosbf lost all hope of ever leaving Russia legally. He decided tojoin others whose right to emigrate had been similarly violated in a plan aimed at taking over an empty plane in order to cross the Soviet border and ultimately reach Israel. The participants in these preparations were not armed and their Intended action was carefully planned to avoid inflicting harm on anyone. Their purpose was as much to shatter the officially sponsored myth that Jews were not interested in emigrating from the Soviet Union as to fulfill their own aspirations to emigrate. Yosef was arrested on June 15. 1970 at the Smolny airport near Leningrad. In a trial in Leningrad. on December 25. 1979. he was sentenced to 15 years of confinement in a strict regime labor camp.
Keywords matched
emigrate emigrating