Vladimir Slepak
Last Friday morning I drove to the nearby town of Kfar Saba, to give a talk on "DNA and forensics" to the local Russian Scientist's group. They are mainly retired scientists from the former Soviet Union, who like to keep up-to-date on scientific subjects. They meet in a club house at the end of the main road thru the town, Rehov Weizmann. I have been there before so I knew where to go.
There were about 20 people in the audience, and of course my presentation was translated into Russian for them. As I was speaking, I noticed a man in the front row with an unusual beard, divided into two, pointing downwards left and right. I have only once before met someone with a beard like this, and that was in Moscow in 1972 (there is also a portrait of a postman with such a cleft beard by Vincent Van Gogh). That person was Vladimir Slepak and I wrote about him in my "confessions of a Jewish activist." He was one of the leading refuseniks that I went to see in his apartment when I was visiting Moscow that year for the Intl. Biophysics Conference. So all the while I was giving the lecture I was wondering if this could be Slepak, but 36 years later!
After I had finished my talk I managed to meet the gentleman, and asked him. Of course, I momentarily forgot about the language problem, but luckily he understood English. He confirmed that indeed he is Vladimir Slepak. Although I am sure he did not remember me, as an icon of the Soviet Jewry movement in the USSR, he was instantly memorable to me. I reminded him that when I was in his apartment in Moscow all those years ago he was telephoned by MP Greville Janner (later Lord Janner) from London and I had spoken to Janner then, and later visited him in the House of Commons on my way back to the US. I must admit that I found Janner to be a pompous and self-promoting individual, who showed no interest whatsoever in my experiences in the former USSR.
Anyway it was quite a surprise for me to meet the same man that I had met in Moscow, only 36 years later in Kfar Saba. He spent 5 long years as a refusenik, having renounced his Soviet citizenship, and in a real sense helped to bring down the Soviet Union. He is of course older now, as we all are, and his divided beard is now grey.
There were about 20 people in the audience, and of course my presentation was translated into Russian for them. As I was speaking, I noticed a man in the front row with an unusual beard, divided into two, pointing downwards left and right. I have only once before met someone with a beard like this, and that was in Moscow in 1972 (there is also a portrait of a postman with such a cleft beard by Vincent Van Gogh). That person was Vladimir Slepak and I wrote about him in my "confessions of a Jewish activist." He was one of the leading refuseniks that I went to see in his apartment when I was visiting Moscow that year for the Intl. Biophysics Conference. So all the while I was giving the lecture I was wondering if this could be Slepak, but 36 years later!
After I had finished my talk I managed to meet the gentleman, and asked him. Of course, I momentarily forgot about the language problem, but luckily he understood English. He confirmed that indeed he is Vladimir Slepak. Although I am sure he did not remember me, as an icon of the Soviet Jewry movement in the USSR, he was instantly memorable to me. I reminded him that when I was in his apartment in Moscow all those years ago he was telephoned by MP Greville Janner (later Lord Janner) from London and I had spoken to Janner then, and later visited him in the House of Commons on my way back to the US. I must admit that I found Janner to be a pompous and self-promoting individual, who showed no interest whatsoever in my experiences in the former USSR.
Anyway it was quite a surprise for me to meet the same man that I had met in Moscow, only 36 years later in Kfar Saba. He spent 5 long years as a refusenik, having renounced his Soviet citizenship, and in a real sense helped to bring down the Soviet Union. He is of course older now, as we all are, and his divided beard is now grey.
posted by Jack Cohen at 8:01 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home