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Red Army Chorus Picketed

September 7, 1973
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Despite a heavy downpour some 80 members of the Montreal Committee for Soviet Jewry demonstrated last night in front of the University of Montreal Sports Center where the Red Army Chorus began a five-night engagement. The demonstrators carried banners and distributed flyers accusing members of the Red Army of beating up and harassing Israeli athletes and Jewish spectators at the World University Games in Moscow. One banner read, “In Montreal you sing, in Moscow you beat up Jews.”

Some members of the chorus expressed their surprise at the banners and tried to speak to the demonstrators. But they were pulled back by their superior officers. The Montreal Committee issued a statement saying that “We appreciate the artistic accomplishments of the Red Army Chorus but cannot allow ourselves to attend its performances in Montreal in view of the plight of Soviet Jewry and the physical abuse by Red Army members against Israeli athletes and Jewish spectators.”

An income of $250 million and 750,000 tourists are expected by the end of this year, Tourism Minister Moshe Kol said in Jerusalem during a festive ceremony at the Knesset at which 177 tourism concerns were awarded titles for outstanding services. Kol said tourism continued to increase despite security problems and tensions in the area.

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