June 1st, 1979 – International Child Protection Day.
Misha Kremen prepared a large exhibit called “Refusenik Children”, travelling throughout the year taking pictures of children. There were photos of the “underground” kindergarten and school, holidays, studies and summers in the countryside. The photos at the exhibit were accompanied by the following types of titles:
“Dad, why am I Jewish? It’s a bad thing, isn’t it?”
“You parents - are cowards. Roma has been in refusal for a long time already, and we’re still not.”
“I’m already 12, it’ll be time for my Bar-mitzvah soon and you haven’t had a Brit for me yet. Oh, You……..”
The exhibit was a great success. Throughout the day, again and again people discussed their opinions of the photographs, the situation that children of refuseniks find themselves in and talked about where to take their lives from here. No one ever knew when they would be permitted to leave the USSR.