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April 20, 2007
'The Last Jew in Europe' -- Still Too Many?
I recently saw the play "The Last Jew in Europe" at the Jewish Theater of New York. It renewed my faith in the ability of theater to create art and engage an audience. While it closed over the weekend, the play will return this fall.
The play opens with a jolt, mostly pictures of anti-Semitic graffiti in Lodz, Poland, where the play is set. The scenes get a visceral reaction, not only from the sickened audiences in the small theater but also from certain Poles.
But Poles do not react from a sense of shame at the continued frothing Jew-hatred in their midst. No no no no no, a thousand times no! According to the play's program booklet, the Polish government reacted in a way straight out of the American oppressed-victim-group handbook.
The program says:
"The images . . . in no way improve relations between our peoples or educate the uneducated, whether they are Jewish or anti-Semitic." -- The Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Washington, D.C., requesting that the anti-Semitic images from Lodz not be made public, while accusing the theater of engagement in activities that "may be viewed as racist."
Well, we certainly have to consider the need to uplift uneducated Jews -- those that are left. And you have to love that phrase -- "may be viewed as racist." Where have we heard that language before? For its part, the Polish government denies it squeezed the theater in any way. The New York Sun reported,
The consul general of Poland in New York, Krzysztof Kasprzyk, told The New York Sun yesterday that the Polish diplomats made absolutely no attempt to influence theatergoers or critics, and did not press the German Consulate to cancel any planned play-related events. "This is a stupid, absurd accusation," Mr. Kasprzyk said.
The German reference is explained in detail in the Sun article.
I'll grant that the playwright and the theater's artistic director, Tuvia Tenenbom, sounds like a master showman who knows how to stoke the flames of controversy. You know what they say, there's no such thing as bad publicity. Besides the Polish government, he's tangled with the New York Times' arts section. To get the full blow-by-blow, go to the Straight Up blog by Jan Herman and his entry "Playwright Sends a Letter: Tenenbom Vs. the Times."
Van | 04/20/07 at 07:34 AM | Categories: Doing Jewish
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Comments
Where will the Jews go once Sharia and Islam is the National religion and politcal power in America?
Barry 0351 | April 23, 2007 05:11 PM
Since Kesher Talk appreciates the floor mosaic of the Byzantine era synagogue in Jericho [I've been there], I though you might be interested in the mosaics from the synagogue at Susiya on Mount Hebron south of Hebron. See link for photos and commentary:
http://ziontruth.blogspot.com/2007/04/susiya-ancient-jewish-town-southeast-of.html
Eliyahu | April 25, 2007 06:56 AM
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