Hunger Strikes Spread

Hunger strikes and demonstrations in support of the fast being conducted in Moscow by Jewish activist Vladimir Slepak and his family are spreading to major cities in the United States and Canada, Here In Cleveland, 35 people marched in front of City Hall during the lunch hour, including seven members of the Case-Western Reserve University Jewish Student Coalition who are fasting in sympathy with the Slepaks. Among the demonstrators were Mayor Ralph Perk and Earl Williams, director of Community Relations for the city, who is a leader of the Black community here.

In Cincinnati, about 70 local Jews began hunger strike lust night and today were Joined by the mothers of Mark Nashpitz and Boris Tsitlionok, the two Moscow Jewish activists who have been sentenced to five years in exile after demonstrating for visas, A spokesman for the Cincinnati Hunger Strike Committee said 8-10 people are committed to continue the fast as long as the Slepaks do.

The Toronto Group of 35, a group of Jewish women activists in support of Soviet Jewry, organized a dusk-to-dawn hunger strike today,. Several dozen women, some of them with children, marched in front of the Ontario Provincial Parliament. They conducted a silent vigil and distributed literature to passersby, In New York, 10 friends of Slepak, all students, began a sympathy hunger strike yesterday in front of the Metropolitan Museum of Art as an exhibition of ancient gold pieces on loan from the USSR opened.

Slepak, his wife, Maria, and their 22-year-old son, Aleksandr, began their hunger strike April 13, the fifth anniversary of their applications for visas to emigrate to Israel. Aleksandr though very weak. is continuing to work since he is the only one in the family with a job. Slepak has waited longer than anyone else in Moscow to emigrate.