MUSIC

Israel’s Foreign Minister, Shimon Peres, said Saturday that a series of performances in Jerusalem by a Soviet Gypsy musical troupe “is an expression of a change in our relations with the Soviet Union.” Peres spoke with members of the 25-member Roman group after their Saturday night performance, while 40 former Soviet Jews protested outside the theater against closer ties with the Soviet Union. Israeli-Soviet cultural exchanges have been rare since Moscow severed relations with Israel during the 1967 Six-Day War. Peres is in favor of restoring those exchanges.