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boys where her father dovens (prays). They told him to go to a synagogue on a certain street and to ask for Reb Shlomo Volsun. The young man was Gregory Moldavsky, born in Tomashpol, Ukraine. Gregory went to his own father and asked for help in obtaining a proper introduction to the woman he had noticed. Mr. Moldavsky knew of Shlomo Volsun. In short order, the fathers got together and arranged an introduction. Inna was very happy and as she got to know Gregory, she knew that her instincts were right. Inna was no romantic; as a poor girl, she knew she had to find a husband who could provide for her and the children. Gregory was qualified. He was five years older, educated, and established, plus he came om a good Jewish family. Aer a few weeks of courtship, Gregory proposed and Inna accepted. The couple had a Jewish wedding on September 9, 1949, in Moscow with a ketuba (Jewish marriage contract). Inna and Gregory had two children, Aleksander and Elena, both born in Moscow. Like his cousin Lev Volsun, Aleksander was circumcised in a secret ceremony. Refusenik Refusenik, or otkaznik (Russian: отказник, om отказ, i.e., refusal), entered English language as part of the Cold War lexicon to refer to those who were refused certain human rights, notably including the right to emigrate. In Russia, it was an unofficial term for individuals, typically Soviet Jews, who were denied permission to emigrate abroad by the authorities of the former Soviet Union and other countries of the Eastern bloc. The term refusenik derived om the "refusal" handed down to a prospective emigrant om the Soviet authorities. A large number of Soviet Jews applied for exit visas to leave the Soviet Union, especially in the period following the 1967 Six-Day War in Israel. Some people were allowed to leave with relative ease. Others were refused permission. Still others were told to wait for a decision. These people could languish for years waiting for the OVIR (ОВиР, "Отдел Виз и Регистрации," "Otdel Viz i Registratsii"), the department responsible for issuing exit visas, to act. The rationale for who could emigrate seemed arbitrary. In many instances, the people had had access at some point in their careers to information vital to Soviet national security. For that reason, they could not be allowed to leave. During the Cold War, Soviet Jews were presumed a security liability or possible traitors. To apply for an exit visa, the applicants (and sometimes their entire families) oen had to quit their jobs, which in turn would make them vulnerable to charges of social parasitism, a criminal offense. Many Jews encountered institutional anti-Semitism, which blocked their opportunities for advancement. Some government sectors were almost entirely off-limits to Jews. In addition, Soviet restrictions on religious education and expression prevented Jews om engaging in Jewish cultural and religious life. While these restrictions led many Jews to seek to emigrate, requesting an exit visa was itself seen as an act of betrayal by Soviet authorities. Thus prospective emigrants requested permission to emigrate at great risk, knowing that an official refusal would oen be accompanied by dismissal om work and other forms of social ostracism and economic pressure. The coming-to-power of Mikhail Gorbachev in the Soviet Union in the mid-1980s and his policies of glasnost and perestroika, all part of a desire for better relations with the West, led to major changes. Most refuseniks were then allowed to emigrate. With the collapse of the Soviet Union at the end of the decade, the term refusenik largely passed into history.

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