As the hunger strike of three Soviet Jews in Moscow entered into its fourth day today the Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry reported that most of the phones of Jewish activists in Moscow have been disconnected. According to the SSSJ, the hunger strikers issued a statement today declaring. “By cutting off conversation with the outside world the KGB plans to isolate us and minimize the meaning of our hunger strike.” The statement appealed “to people who sympathize with us to demand connection with the outside world.” The SSSJ said it obtained this statement by calling a Soviet Jew in Moscow whose phone was abruptly disconnected as he was reading a statement to the Soviet Jewry group.
Last Friday, David Azbel, a professor of technical sciences, Vitaly Rubin, an authority on ancient China, and Vladimir Galatsky, an artist, began their hunger strike in Azbel’s apartment as “an act of despair and protest” against the Soviet Union’s failure to grant them exit visas, according to the Greater New York Conference on Soviet Jewry. Benjamin Gorochov, a script-writer and film director, was also due to participate in the hunger strike. According to the SSSJ, Gorochov is not participating because he and his wife, Sophia, received verbal assurances from Soviet authorities that their visas will be granted.
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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.
