The chairmen of the National Jewish Community Relations Advisory Council and National Conference on Soviet Jewry today saluted three Moscow Jewish activists who are on a hunger strike protesting the Soviet government’s refusal to allow them to emigrate to Israel, and American Jews in Miami, Chicago and Philadelphia who are fasting in sympathy and support.
The fast in Moscow is being conducted by Vladimir and Maria Slepak and their son Aleksandr; Aleksandr Lunts and Vladimir Prestin. The strike began last Sunday, the fifth anniversary of Slepak’s application for an exit visa.
Lewis D. Cole and Stanley H. Lowell, the chairmen of NJCRAC and NCSJ, respectively, praised the hunger strikers’ “indomitable courage and determination” and the “commitment and devotion to the cause of freedom for Soviet Jews” shown by the American Jews fasting with them “to demonstrate to the Soviet leadership the unshakable resolve of Jews everywhere to dramatize before the world the refusal of the Soviet Union to allow Jews the most elementary human rights and freedom.”
The sympathy fast began in Miami last Sunday by five dentists and their wives and was being continued today by four of the dentists and one wife. The five couples had met the Slepaks in Moscow last year.
Meanwhile in Toronto, Mrs. Genya Intrator, national vice-president of the Canadian Committee for Soviet Jewry, said she was able to reach Slepak by telephone last night and inform him what the Miami group was doing and he sent telegrams to them thanking them for their “support and solidarity.”
The Slepaks also sent a message of thanks to the four Miamians in which he said: “Your declaring a hunger strike and your support in these difficult times means a great deal for us. The realization that we are not alone, that our friends are with us, gives a new impetus to our struggle.” The Slepaks concluded that although they didn’t know when they would be allowed to emigrate, “we do know for certain that eventually we will go to Israel. This will also be your victory.”
Five people have joined in the fast in Philadelphia and nine in Chicago, including three non-Jewish women, one of them a nun.
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