Against the background of organized Soviet harassment of Israeli athletes and Jewish spectators at the world university student games in Moscow, a warm friendship was reported to have developed between an Israeli basketball player and Russia’s outstanding gymnast, Olga Korvot. The tall, bespectacled Yehoshua Schwartz and Ms. Korvot, both of whom speak English, met at various events and then went to dances together.
Schwartz said in a telephone conversation with his family here that the gymnast “dances very well.” Ms. Korvot, apparently unconcerned about possible hostile official reaction, visited the Israeli athletes. She has intimated that her mother was half-Jewish. Schwartz, who said he intended to maintain contact by correspondence with the beautiful gymnast after he returns to Israel, declared, “we are now good friends.”
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.
