Yasha Kazakov ended his fast today. The 23-year-old Russian-born Israeli who went without food for eight and a half days to dramatize the plight of his family and other Soviet Jews, said he was calling off his hunger strike at the urging of his father, Joseph. Yesterday, the elder Kazakov telephoned from Moscow to the Israeli United Nations Mission here, asking that it appeal to his son to end his fast. That message was conveyed to the youth personally by Ambassador Yosef Tekoah, Israel’s chief representative at the UN. The elder Kazakov phoned Ambassador Tekoah from Moscow again this morning inquiring as to the latest word on his son’s strike. He was told it had been ended, and thanked the ambassador for his aid. Mr. Tekoah in turn said he hoped Soviet authorities would come around to recognizing the desires of families to remain together in the lands of their choice. After leaving the site of his fast, young Kazakov met with Mr. Tekoah in the latter’s office and shared tea with him.
Yasha Kazakov announced the termination of his fast at a sidewalk press conference in pouring rain today. He said he would enter a hospital for a medical check-up and planned to return to Israel on Sunday. The young man said he hoped the ending of his 200-hour vigil opposite UN headquarters would prompt Soviet authorities to grant his family the exit visas they have long sought so that they might join him in Israel. Young Kazakov was permitted to leave the Soviet Union a year ago and went to Israel where he enrolled as an engineering student at the Haifa Technion. He said that his father, an engineer, lost his job after petitioning Soviet officials for exit visas. The elder Kazakov was one of 18 Moscow Jews who recently wrote the Soviet Foreign Ministry pressing for Jewish emigration rights. According to Yasha, his father was subsequently singled out by the Soviet press for harassment. After the young man began his hunger strike, his father sent another letter to Soviet leaders saying that the act was not directed against the Soviet Union but was undertaken out of desperation.
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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.
