For Unchosen Few, a Long Wait

When Isaac Mankin, 53, a senior scientist in the southern Russian city of Saratov, applied to emigrate from the Soviet Union 2 1/2 years ago, he expected that it would be quick and simple because, after decades of trouble, Jews were finally leaving by the thousands for Israel.

“The refusenik era was over--even the biggest scientists could go,” said Dr. Anna Mankin, a daughter. “We thought there was no possibility of our being turned down. Father was not so important, we thought, and he only knew medium-sized secrets, if that.”

But Mankin’s application to emigrate was turned down immediately by Moscow authorities, again last year and then for a third time six months ago.

“Father has been refused and refused and refused, and we really don’t know why,” Anna Mankin said in an interview here. “His institute is no longer classified secret, other scientists there have left for abroad and he has been cleared by the electronics ministry to emigrate.

“He doesn’t know when he will be able to leave--if ever. We thought all this was over, but our family is still trapped in the old Soviet system.”

At least 200 Jews in Russia, Ukraine and other regions of the former Soviet Union have also had their applications to emigrate repeatedly rejected, according to monitoring groups here and in the United States.

These Jews constitute a new group of refuseniks, but they have largely been forgotten amid the outflow of Jewish emigrants, now running at more than 10,000 a month to Israel, Europe and the United States.

Many are prohibited from leaving under new as well as old laws because of past access to military and industrial secrets.

Others have fallen victim to the Soviet Union’s collapse, according to relatives here, because the organizations that could waive those restrictions or give them clearance to leave are now in a different country or simply have ceased to function.

And a few seem to be the victims of vendettas of local officials over whom no central government appears to have authority.

“The number of new refuseniks could be as high as 500, but we are sure of 200,” said Rosa Finkelberg, an emigration specialist at the Zionist Forum for Soviet Jewry in Jerusalem. “The reasons are various--security clearances, past military service, refusal by relatives to release them for emigration--but the phenomenon of ‘refusal’ continues. . . .

“For the person wanting to leave, that ‘nyet’ means the same today as it did 20 years ago. If anything, it may be more disheartening because he sees others, almost all the others, leave and asks: ‘Why me? Why have I been refused?’ ”

The answer to that “why?” often lies in the distant past--participation in a long-forgotten scientific conference or military exercise, knowledge of a technical process that Russia hopes to market in the West and, perhaps quite often, conflicts with officials who still have the power to forbid emigration.

As with Mankin, whose two daughters were allowed to leave, the new refuseniks often face the hard decision to divide their families, sending ahead to Israel those with permission to leave for fear that otherwise, even this could be lost.

* Vladimir Politsan, 23, a former military telegrapher, was left behind when his parents and sister emigrated in 1991. Although he lives in Uzbekistan, now an independent country, and the missile unit in which he served was disbanded some time ago, local authorities refuse to allow him to emigrate because of his access to Soviet army communications equipment as a draftee in 1988 and 1989. He may not be able to leave until 1994.

* Bennisa Heifetz, 60, a retired electronics engineer, sent her son, Alexander, ahead to Israel when she was unable to get an exit visa two years ago because of her access to “state secrets” at a research institute in Moscow. Although she has now been cleared for emigration by the institute and its parent ministry, Russian security officials have refused to approve the visa and will not say why.

* Alexander Klebanov, 59, a retired engineer at a turbine factory in Kuibyshev, a major center in the old Soviet defense industry, is still barred from emigrating although he has not worked regularly since 1980 because of serious health problems. His daughter Lia was given permission to leave in November, 1990, but he was refused.

“Where we used to have blanket prohibitions--all scientists, all political dissidents, all Hebrew teachers, all former servicemen--now we have highly individual refusals,” Yuli Kosharovsky, a Jewish Agency official, commented. “But, at the bottom, it’s the same old stuff. . . . “

“Like everyone else, we rejoice that so many Jews are coming to Israel from Russia and other parts of the Soviet Union,” Lana Mankin said. “But each time a plane lands, we ask, ‘When will Mama and Papa be on it?’ ”

Falling Emigration

Far fewer Jews are arriving in Israel this year from the former Soviet Union. In some cases, Moscow still forbids them to leave.

Number of Jews emigrating to Israel from former Soviet Union:

June 1991: 21,372

November 1992: 6,544

Source: Israeli Embassy