December 30, 1986, as a sign of good will and an encouragement to the peoples and leaders of the Soviet Union to move rather faster towards liberalisation, the Radical Party promoted demonstrations in front of the Soviet Embassies in Rome, Paris and Brussels, for the release of "prisoners of Zion" and the right of the "refuzniks", (i.e. those to whom permission to emigrate is refused) to emigrate to Jerusalem. In particular, the Radicals asked the authorities to release nine "refuzniks" whom they had chosen to adopt as a symbol of this campaign because of the gravity of their situation, and to allow them to emigrate: Ida Nudel, Josif Begun, Grigory Lemberg, Alexei Magarik, Marat Osnis, Dora Kostantinovskaja, Grigory and Natalia Rosenstein and Cherna Goldort. Subsequently, Alexander Lerner and the Vladimir and Isolda Tufeld couple, were added to the list.

The words of the Soviet representatives, who received delegations of demonstrators in Rome and Brussels, raised the hope that it would soon be possible to have the nine released, but this hope was mainly disappointed.

In the meantime, the 32nd Congress of the Radical Party, a party which has exceeded its objective of obtaining ten thousand members in 1986 and five thousand members by the end of January 1987, was held at the end of February. Many joined precisely for its international battles and for human rights, and a lot of the "refuzniks'" relatives were present. Amongst others were Ilana Nudel Friedman, Ida Nudel's sister, and Irina Zeitin, the daughter of Cherna Goldort, both from Israel; against the backdrop of the Congress, next to portraits of Gandhi, Ernesto Rossi and Altiero Spinelli, the names of the adopted nine stood out boldly, both in Hebrew and Russian. "This year to Jerusalem" was the slogan at the time, which recalled the ancient Hebrew proverb: "Next year to Jerusalem".

A few weeks later, the same Cherna Goldort, in a difficult and almost abortive telephone conversation from Siberia, communicated her own wish to join the Radical Party, as the Party for Human Rights. It was our first membership to come from the Soviet Union, and followed requests for membership from personalities, dissidents and emigrés in the West, which had arrived during the past few months. In the meantime, Cherna Goldort's name and those of the other "adopted" refuzniks, appeared in a motion of the European Parliament and in a parliamentary interpellation to the Italian Foreign Minister on the situation of Soviet Jews, in order to exact from the Soviet Union respect for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, for the International Agreement on Civil and Political Rights, for the final Helsinki Act concerning the free circulation of people and the reunion of families.

May came before news arrived of the concession of the first two emigration visas for the 'adopted' refuzniks - for Dora Dostantinovskaja, and a few days later, Cherna Goldort. The Radicals were thrilled, but could not help remembering that the Soviet authorities had not let them know anything at all about the other seven cases since December, nor had they replied to repeated requests for a meeting.

However, between summer and autumn of 1987, visas were obtained for Ida Nudel, Grigory Lemberg, and Josif Begun. Then came the turn of Alexander Lerner and the Tufeld couple, then Marat Osnis and Alexei Magarik, and at last, in summer 1988, news arrived of the Rosenstein couple's emigration.