Vladimir Slepak. a radio and television engineer. and his wife Maria. a physician. are forcibly separated from their two sons. Alexandr and Leonid. In 1970. the entire family applied to emigrate to Israel where they would join Marias mother. Their request was denied. but in 1977. Alexandr was allowed to emigrate. In 1978. the Slepaks hung a banner from their balcony saying: "Let Us Go to Our Son in Israel." For this action. Vladimir was sentenced to a 5year term of internal exile in Siberia. Marias sentence was suspended. but she chose to join her husband. In 1979. their son Leonid was at last allowed to emigrate. In December of 1982. Vladimir completed his sentence and returned with Maria to Moscow where they. like so many other refuseniks. still await the day of reunification with their family. Recently. I paid a visit to the Soviet Union with Representative BROOMFIELD and met the Slepaks. along with many other Jewish refuseniks and members of United StatesSoviet divided familes. We assured them of Congress strong support for their efforts to emigrate and to exercise their basic human rights. We also discussed this issue with various Soviet officials. including General Secretary Gorbachev. While receiving no firm commitments. the Soviets agreed to reconsider the individual cases that we raised.
Keywords matched
emigrate