L.A. Jewish Leaders Ask Soviets to Liberalize Emigration Laws

Los Angeles Jewish community leaders, led by Judge Joseph A. Wapner of the television program “People’s Court,” urged Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev on Tuesday to establish consistent, liberal emigration laws for Soviet Jews.

At a news conference sponsored by the Jewish Federation Council of Greater Los Angeles, Wapner, who recently toured the Soviet Union to meet with Jewish refuseniks, said: “We’re grateful for what (Gorbachev) has done . . . but it is not enough. . . . We need some regularity.

“As a lawyer and judge, I’m interested in the human rights aspect of this . . . and of the due process of law,” said Wapner, who retired from Los Angeles Superior Court in 1979 after 20 years.

14-Year Wait for Visa

Also speaking was refusenik leader Yevgeny Yakir, a former mechanical engineer who was allowed to emigrate to Israel one year ago Tuesday after a 14-year wait.

“The feeling of being free I can’t compare to anything else,” said the Tel Aviv resident, who is currently visiting friends in Los Angeles. “But my friends who are still in Russia, I still don’t know what will happen to them.”

Thus far this year, almost 13,000 Soviet Jews have emigrated to the United States, compared to only 641 in 1986. The largest emigration surges, particularly of the most vocal dissidents, seem to occur about the time of state visits between Gorbachev and President Reagan, Jewish leaders say.

“For every summit, the Russian government has a group of Jews, let’s say hostages, they are releasing . . . to make good face,” said Yakir, a descendant of Soviet war heroes who said he was forced from his engineering job after applying to emigrate in 1973.

300,000 Waiting to Emigrate

As many as 300,000 of the approximately 2 million Jews in the Soviet Union would like to emigrate to Israel or America, according to Jewish federation officials. But Soviet authorities give potential emigrants no idea how, why or when the decisions will be made, Wapner said.

“Some kind of due process, some kind of rules and regulations are needed,” he added.

In a letter to the Soviet president, who is in New York City to address the United Nations and meet with President Reagan, federation officials applauded Gorbachev’s reforms and “the renewed hope they bring to Soviet Jews.”

“Yet there remain important steps to be taken by the Soviet government,” the letter, which is to be delivered by the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, continues. “While we are delighted that there are no longer ‘prisoners of conscience’ in prison cells, we eagerly await the news that your government has issued exit visas that will allow those former prisoners to be reunited with their people.”