Sharanskys on Way to N.Y. to Take Part in Begun Protest

JERUSALEM — Freed Soviet dissident Natan Sharansky and his family left today for New York, where they will join a two-day protest outside the Soviet U.N. mission against the continued imprisonment of Soviet dissident Josef Begun.

Sharansky told an airport news conference before departing that he hoped their action would help “achieve a breakthrough” on the overall issue of Soviet Jewish emigration.

He said the protest is expected to expand into an open-ended demonstration on behalf of all Soviet Jews.

In New York, a protest organizer said Sharansky, his wife, Avital, and infant daughter, Rachel, and others plan to live for two days in a “prison cage” near the Soviet mission to express their outrage at Begun’s treatment.