"The article on Brighton Beach in the recent Winter 2024 issue reminded me of an incident in 1988. A small group of the Soviet Jewry Council of Philadelphia was invited into the Soviet Union Embassy in Washington to discuss the Jewish Refuseniks. When I presented a list of 11 Refusenik families who wanted permission to leave the Soviet Union to move to Israel, the Soviet official said that every time they give permission the Refusenik families go to Brighton Beach instead of Israel. We all broke into laughter but fortunately, after permission to leave the Soviet Union was granted several months later, all of the families we spoke about went to Israel."