Former Riga Jew Continues Hunger Strike in Front of White House

Yosef Schneider, the former Riga Jew staging a hunger strike outside the White House, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency: “I feel good because I’m doing something for the Jews of the Soviet Union.” The 24-year-old Israeli, who began his scheduled week-long fast vigil Monday, is stationed within a simulated “prisoner’s cage” and is wearing a large black-and-yellow Star of David on his sweater. A sign within the cage reads: “I am a Jew from Russia. March 14th I began my fast. I will continue till Mr. Nixon speaks to me.” Schneider, who has lived in Tel Aviv with his wife and son since late 1969, added to the JTA correspondent that the President, as “protector of the free world,” could raise the issue with the Kremlin leaders. He said he had waited eight years for his emigration application to be approved.

Schneider is accompanied by Izzy Danziger, a political science freshman at Brooklyn (N.Y.) College and a member of the Jewish Defense League. Danziger, wearing striped simulated prison garb, holds a large prison “key” with the words “Mr. Nixon you can save Soviet Jewry.” Across Pennsylvania Avenue in Lafayette park, a rented van with Maryland license plates bears a sign reading “Let My People Go” and photographs of arrested Soviet Jews Ruth Aleksandrovich, Arkady Shpilberg, Boris Maftsier and Mikhail Shepshelovich. Also on the van is a reproduction of the JDL’s 10-point anti-Soviet program, including a can for nonviolent civil disobedience.” The van was rented by the members of the so-called 14-21 Committee planning a rally for Soviet Jewry next Sunday in the park. The participating groups are the Washington Committee for Soviet Jewry, the Washington Committee for the Release of Captive Soviet Jewry, Student Activists for Soviet Jewry, the American Movement for Israel, Nean Mizrachi. Achdut Betar, the New York Union of Jewish Students and the JDL.