Jewish students who had been braving the biting cold of winter weather since Sunday afternoon ended today their 72-hour fast-vigil which they had conducted near the Soviet Mission to the United Nations. Several of the 25 students who formed the core of the vigil-fast, said they were “very tired and cold but very determined” to continue. Several of the students reported that they had been near fainting as a result of the fast but refused to leave the vigil. This afternoon they were joined by a large contingent of students from nearby Hunter College. During the three-day fast several hundred students from metropolitan area schools participated in the vigil in addition to some 150 youngsters from local yeshivot. The peaceful demonstration was sponsored by the Noar Mizrachi Youth Movement, the Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry, Yavneh, the National Council of Young Israel Young Adults, and student organizations at Columbia University, Yeshiva University, Long Island University, Hunter College, Brooklyn College, City College, Stern College for Women, and Herbert H. Lehman College, Various area rabbis addressed the students throughout the vigil. Tomorrow morning, the fasters will attend an address by Soviet Jewish emigre Leonid Rigerman at Park East Synagogue.
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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.