April 10, 2008
Twenty years ago John McCain helped me to be free and permitted me to emigrate from the Soviet Union, where I was a refusenik for many years.
Clarence Darrow (1857-1938), one of the most famous American lawyers, said: “Freedom comes from human beings, rather than from laws and institutions.”
A letter on behalf of my family from 48 U.S. senators (McCain was one of them) to Mikhail Gorbachev that was by delivered by Sen. Frank Lautenberg in August 1987 clearly proves the rightness of Darrow’s statement.
I keep this letter as a talisman that reminds me about my miraculous release from anti-Semitism and cultural oppression, from being harassed by the KGB during a long time with fears of arrest on trumped-up charges.
In 1980 a few central and local Soviet newspapers attacked me as a criminal who supported the boycott of the Olympic Games in the USSR by the United States and other Western countries. In 1984 I had the distinction of being spotlighted in a half-hour film shown on Soviet television. The film, titled The Hirelings and Their Accomplices, portrayed me as a “Zionist and CIA agent in the Western conspiracy against the Soviet state.” On Jan. 15, 1985, ABC’s Nightline gave the film its first showing outside the USSR, providing stark evidence of the intensification of officially sanctioned anti-Semitism.
During all the trying times in the Soviet Union we took courage and hope from the fact that we were not abandoned and not forgotten. You cannot imagine how I appreciate McCain’s and his Senate colleagues’ letter. I am sure that this letter helped us to get finally the long-awaited visas in December 1987, after my meeting in Moscow with Secretary of State George Shultz and the summit between President Ronald Reagan and Gorbachev.
In August 1988 I was invited to the House of Representatives to attend and speak at a press conference on anti-Semitism in the Soviet Union. I was very happy to use this opportunity to meet with a few U.S. senators and representatives and thank them personally for all their efforts on our behalf.
I have a dream of meeting Sen. McCain one day and personally thanking him for his support for me and my family 20 years ago. Words are really inadequate to express how much it meant for us.
I am familiar with his heroic biography and admire his patriotism, dedication, and tremendous courage. I am sure that at this time he is the best candidate to be the next president. I do hope that it will happen, and I pray for it.
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