L.a. Jewish Group May Sue over Deletion of Ads from Bolshoi Program

An official of the Los Angeles Jewish Federation-Council said today that the organization was considering legal action for breach of contract because a paid advertisement it had placed in the program booklet of the Soviet Bolshoi Ballet performances here was ripped out before the program was distributed to the audience,

The ad in question welcomed the Soviet dancers but charged that “Soviet Jews are denied the right to emigrate freely; to practice their religion; and to study their culture and ancestral language,” according to Charles Posner, an official of the JF-C. Lillian Libman, tour director for Hurok Concerts, Inc., sponsors of the Bolshoi tour, said the sponsors had the right to remove “offensive material” from the program and added that “if any further insults are leveled against the Russians, they will have to cancel,”

The JF-C committee arranged a demonstration last Tuesday night when the Bolshoi performances began, which was attended by 1000 protesters. Programs distributed to patrons on the first and second nights had three pages torn out and on the third night ads that appeared on those pages were deleted. In addition to the JF-C’s ad, an advertisement placed by the Southern California Council for Soviet Jewry on behalf of Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s book “Gulag Archipelago” was removed as was an ad by the Los Angeles Recreation and Parks Department advertising a performance by Valery and Galina Panov at the Greek Theater here. The Panovs, former members of the Kirov Ballet of Leningrad, were permitted to leave Russia for Israel last year after years of struggle for exit visas.