Six demonstrators, including two leaders of Southern California Jewish activists, were scheduled to go on trial today for allegedly having disrupted a performance Sunday of the Osipov Balalaika Orchestra at the Shrine Auditorium. Those arrested included Zev Yaroslavsky, chairman of the California Students for Soviet Jews, and Si Frumkin, chairman of the Southern California Council for Soviet Jews. Yaroslavsky told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency today that the six would plead not guilty and would request a two-week postponement of their trial.
The six were arrested when, during the orchestra’s performance, they draped banners reading “Let My People Go” and “Save Soviet Jews” over the balcony of the Shrine and released balloons in the auditorium reading “Let the Jews Go.” Vice officers in plain clothes, who were in the audience, made the arrests and charged one of the demonstrators with “suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon” and “resisting arrest.” The six were released on $1,200 bail for appearance in court today.
Yaroslavsky said the demonstrators came to the performance to protest the new provocations against Soviet Jews. “We are alarmed at recent threats made against Vladimir Slepak of Moscow and the increasing difficulty with which Soviet Jews are finding in attempts to obtain needed finances for their very subsistence,” he said.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
