Speech #990066203

I suppose I got my first glimpse of what it really means at a dinner that my wife and I attended about a year ago. It was a small dinner in which we had dinner with Elie Weisel. who began the movement in the West in 1965 with his book. "The Jews of Silence." Elie Weisel said it is in their eyes. I remembered thpt when I sat and talked with refuseniks today in 1985. because Elle Weisel says that it is in the eyes of the refuseniks that the issues of repatriation and family reunification find their focus. It is in their eyes that those issues become real. But it is still not real until you stand on Soviet soil and see their faces. and then. by seeing the desperation. the frustration. but also I think that sort of spirit of simply coping with it day to day while working for a future for either themselves or their children that will be betteruntil you see it in their eyes. face to face. you cannot understand it.