I have had the opportunity to sponsor a refusenik family. My family is Aron and Liya Bukhman and their two daughters Diana and Polina. The entire Bukhman family applied for permission to emigrate in 1973 at which time Arons parents. brother. and sisterinlaw were allowed to depart. Arons refusal was based on his previous service as an army sergeant from 1964 to 1967 and his possible exposure to classified material. Since attempting to emigrate. the Bukhman family has lived under constant harassment. Aron and Llya have difficulty finding employment. Their daughter. Diana. has been denied the opportunity to attend kindergarten. And they live in constant fear. surrounded by persistent antisemitic activity in Kiev. The grounds for refusing Aron an exit visa are absurd at best. Even if Aron possessed classified information in his Job. it certainly would be considered obsolete now. more than 14 years later. This family is but one of thousands of Jewish families who wish to leave the U.S.S.R. and are refused for intolerably inadequate reasons. Recent information indicates that only 182 Soviet Jews arrived with Israeli visas from the Soviet Union during the month of June. This contrasts with the 4.500 Jews who received exit visas in June 1979. Furthermore. during the first half of this year. about 1.500 Jews arrived in Vienna from the U.S.S.R.. during the first half of 1979. about 25.000 Jews received permission to leave. This decline in emigration is not due to lack of interest: More than 500.000 Soviet Jews have applied for. and have been denied. exit visas. We must not quietly brush aside this issue. Every effort must be made to halt the unjust treatment of the Bukhman family and the hundreds of thousands of Soviet Jews like them.
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emigrate emigration visas visa