Seven Jewish scientists who went on a hunger strike Sunday night to protest the Soviet Union’s refusal to allow them to emigrate to Israel were still not eating today, Jewish sources in Moscow said. The sources said five Jews in Minsk were planning a similar protest during Communist Party Leader Leonid I, Brezhnev’s trip to the United States.
Physicist Vladimir Raginsky, one of the seven strikers, told newsmen the protest was being made in order to draw attention to the plight of Soviet. Jewry during Brezhnev’s U.S. visit. The group said it was only drinking water, not eating. The other six strikers are: mathematicians Alexander Luntz; Anatoly Livgober; cyberneticist Viktor Brailovsky; physicists Mark Azbel; Alexander Voronel; and Moishe Gitterman.
Other Jewish activists in Moscow have been warned by police not to demonstrate during Brezhnev’s visit to Washington, Jewish sources in the Soviet capital said today. The Jews were told by the secret Soviet police (KGB) that if they caused trouble during the visit they would be arrested and detained for the duration of Brezhnev’s U.S.stay. The sources said Moscow police detained ten Jews Wednesday and told them their applications for emigration to Israel would be seriously considered if they behaved during Brezhnev’s trip.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
