Yampolsky, on 6th Day of Hunger Strike, Learns of Plight of Jews in Kiev

Mark Yampolsky entered the sixth day of his hunger strike outside the Soviet Embassy here today, very weak but apparently determined to continue the demonstration which his in-laws, Dr. and Mrs. Isaac Poltinnikov were forced to give up in Novosibirsk last Friday. Yampolsky, a former mathematics student and jazz drummer from Russia, is protesting the Soviet authorities’ refusal to permit the Poltinnikovs to emigrate to Israel. His wife Eleanora has been on a hunger strike since last week outside the Soviet Embassy in London.

Her parents, who had been fasting at the Central Telephone Exchange in the Siberian city, became too weak to continue and were hospitalized.

Yampolsky was surrounded by sympathizers and well wishers despite a day-long downpour. This morning he went to a telephone booth near the Embassy to place an overseas call to his friend Yuli Tartakovsky, in Kiev. Tartakovsky, an engineer, told him that Jews in both Kiev and Moscow are being stalled on their exit visa applications despite reports that the Soviets were easing up on their emigration policies, Yampolsky told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

The call to Kiev cost $50. It was paid for by Dr. and Mrs. Jehuda Kleinhaus, of New York City whose son and daughter-in-law, Harry and Rosalie Kleinhaus, were among the supporters who visited Yampolsky at his vigil today. According to Tartakovsky, three Kiev Jews who were told by the local visa office two months ago that they could re-apply for exit visas in 12 months, were informed by the same office yesterday that their waiting time begins now–14 months instead of 12. The three were identified as Zenov Melamed, Anatoly Goldfarb and Mark Borodeyansky. Two other Kiev Jews, Jan Monastirsky and Roman Leibengroob were told not to re-apply for visas for two years, Yampolsky’s friend told him. Saul Raslin, an-other Jew seeking to emigrate, was told by the visa authorities that he would have to wait as long as ten years if the government so decreed.

Yampolsky’s friend said that five Jewish scientists in Kiev have had no response to their visa requests though three months have passed since they filed them. He said that while the diploma head tax had been waived for some Moscow Jews last month, most of the others seeking to leave had received no exemptions.