Soviets Allow Woman to Go to Israel to Aid Ailing Kin

Soviet authorities today gave final approval for a Soviet woman and her husband to leave for Israel so she can donate bone marrow to her leukemia-stricken brother, her husband said.

Viktor Fleurov told the Associated Press by telephone that he had just left the Soviet visa agency, OVIR, in Moscow, where he was given a card certifying that he has permission to leave the country.

He said it would take about two weeks to complete the documents that must be turned in to OVIR before passports and tickets are issued to him and his wife, Inessa.

Inessa Fleurov’s brother, Dr. Michael Shirman, who lives in Israel, is suffering from leukemia. Doctors say his life may be prolonged if his sister donates bone marrow for a transplant. Soviet authorities granted Inessa Fleurov a visa to leave the country for Israel on Aug. 20 but had not granted permission to her husband because his father would not sign a financial waiver. Inessa Fleurov refused to leave without her husband.

Fleurov said today that he never got the paper signed and that the authorities gave him permission to leave anyway.

Traveled to Iceland

Shirman, his body weakened by chemotherapy, had traveled to Iceland for the superpower summit to plead with Soviet officials to release his sister and her family.

He received news of the visa today in New York, where he was holding a news conference at Lincoln Square Synagogue to call attention to his situation. Shirman, looking exhausted, was almost speechless when the word came in a telephone call from his sister.

He said he did not want to get his hopes too high. “It’s a miracle. But I’ll believe it when I see them,” he said.

During the summit, Shirman spoke to several Soviet officials about his sister, including Foreign Ministry spokesman Gennady Gerasimov and Samuil Zivs, deputy chairman of the Soviets’ official anti-Zionist committee and a leading spokesman on Jewish emigration.

The Fleurovs were detained by Soviet authorities for several hours last week after they demonstrated in Moscow to draw publicity to their case.