Wheelchair Convoy At The Metropolitan Opera - Another Rally on October 20 - We Are All Klinghoffer!! Friends,
We are writing to inform you about an ongoing issue of concern with which we need your help.
As you are aware, this summer Jews around the world have experienced an upsurge in anti-Semitic rhetoric and action that has left many of us reeling and questioning how such events could be happening in 2014. As American Jews, many of us have come to think of anti-Semitism largely as an issue of another time or place.
However, our complacency has been shattered, not only by events abroad, but by a particularly heinous example of anti-Semitic rhetoric and the blurring of moral lines in one of America's most prestigious bastions of high culture -- the New York Metropolitan Opera. Many in our community have not heard about this issue, and have asked "Why weren't we told?" We feel it is our responsibility to let you know what is happening and the steps the community has taken to counter it.
The Metropolitan Opera has chosen to mount a production of "The Death of Klinghoffer," an opera that seeks to validate and excuse the murder of Leon Klinghoffer, and to humanize his murderers. As you may recall, in 1985 the Palestine Liberation Front, under the direction of Yasser Arafat, hijacked the cruise ship, Achille Lauro. Leon Klinghoffer, 69 years old and wheelchair-bound, was shot in the forehead and chest and thrown overboard in his wheelchair, simply because he was a Jew.
This month, the Metropolitan Opera is airing a production of an operatic account of the murder that paints the terrorists as freedom fighters and as "men of ideals."
In the libretto (text of an opera) one of the terrorists sings: "Wherever poor men are gathered they can find Jews getting fat--You know how to cheat the simple, exploit the virgin, pollute where you have exploited--Defame those you cheated--And break your own law with idolatry." He tells Klinghoffer: "America is one big Jew."
This is not portrayed as the ranting of someone who is evil. If that were the context of this hate speech, it would be justified. Rather, this is the language of someone depicted as an idealistic victim of Jews, justified in fighting back against his Jewish oppressors. He is a terrorist, yet the terrorists in the opera are portrayed as freedom fighters. In the language of the Palestinian terrorists: "We are soldiers fighting a war. We are not criminals and we are not vandals but men of ideals." Despite many months of campaigning by Jewish and non-Jewish organizations alike, the Met has refused to cancel the Opera at Lincoln Center, agreeing only to cancel HD simulcasts. They are backed in their production of propaganda masquerading as art by the New York Times and the New Yorker magazine. Under the pretense of defending artistic freedom, these institutions have blurred the line between good and evil, reducing a horrendous terrorist atrocity to what they have labeled a mere "tragedy" and equalizing the moral claims of perpetrator and victim.
A series of letter writing efforts and phone calls to the Met Board and important donors was launched along with a campaign of emails and phone calls to Met director Peter Gelb. These efforts culminated in a mass demonstration on September 22, 2014 at Lincoln Center. Despite the presence of important Jewish and non-Jewish leaders, local politicians and what many of the news accounts have estimated at between 1,000 - 2,000 demonstrators, the Met has not backed down. They insist on presenting an opera that the New York Times has called "moving and nuanced in imagining a tragedy that gives voice to all sides," despite its offensive, distorted and inflammatory content. Friends, this is the same distorted moral prism that gives rise to attacks like 9/11, the blatant use of human shields, and the beheading of innocent journalists. We cannot let this distortion go unchallenged.
We will rally again, in force, on October 20, 2014 at 6:00 PM with a "100 Wheelchair Caravan" in front of the Metropolitan Opera, Lincoln Center, Broadway & West 65th Street, New York, New York, with wheelchair riders bearing signs proclaiming "We are all Klinghoffer!" This is the opening night of the Klinghoffer opera. We'll take care of the 100. If more than 100 wheelchair participants show up, all the better. We need your participation to either ride in a wheelchair or accompany the wheelchair riders. Let our numbers speak. Please consider attending the rally. Please forward this alert to your friends, neighbors and political representatives so they will know what is happening. Please urge your Rabbis and organizational leaders to support the rally vigorously.
The JCRC of NY has already sent an Open Letter to the Met which has to date been signed by the following leaders, with the list growing every day: - Ronald G. Weiner, President, Jewish Community Relations Council of New York
- Michael S. Miller, Executive Vice President and CEO, Jewish Community Relations Council of New York
- Alisa R. Doctoroff, President, UJA-Federation of New York
- Linda Mirels, Chair of the Board, UJA-Federation of New York
- Eric S. Goldstein, CEO, UJA-Federation of New York
- Rabbi Steve Gutow, President and CEO, Jewish Council for Public Affairs
- Ethan Felson, Vice President and General Counsel, Jewish Council for Public Affairs
- Rabbi David-Seth Kirshner, President, New York Board of Rabbis
- Rabbi Joseph Potasnik, Executive Vice President, New York Board of Rabbis
- Marcie Natan, President, Hadassah
- Ellen Hershkin, Coordinator of the PRAZE Division,
- Hadassah Gail Perl, President, WIZO USA
- Martin Nachimson, President, Orthodox Union
- Allen Fagin, Executive Vice President, Orthodox Union
- Richard Skolnik, President, United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism
- Rabbi Steven Wernick, CEO, United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism
- Farley Weiss, President, National Council of Young Israel
- Robert Levi, Chairman, National Council of Young Israel
- Rabbi Yosef Blau, President, Religious Zionists of America
- Martin Oliner, Chairman, Religious Zionists of America
- Feliks Frenkel, Chairman of the Board, Council of Jewish Emigre Community Organizations
- Roman Shmulenson, Executive Director, Council of Jewish Emigre Community Organizations
- Jack Grunspan, Executive Vice President, Bnai Zion Foundation
- Alicia Post, Director, Northeast Region, Bnai Zion Foundation
- Michael Feinman, Greater New York Executive Director, Jewish National Fund
- David Newman, Executive Director, JCRC-LI
- Paul B. Warhit, President, Westchester Jewish Council
- William H. Schrag, Executive Committee Member, Westchester Jewish Council
- Gale S. Bindelglass, Chair, JCRC of the Jewish Federation of Northern NJ
- Joy Kurland, Director, JCRC of the Jewish Federation of Northern NJ
- Rabbi Steven Moss, President, Suffolk County Board of Rabbis
- Rabbi Michael Stanger, President, Long Island Board of Rabbis
- Cynthia Zalisky, Executive Director, Queens Jewish Community Council
- Warren Hecht, President, Queens Jewish Community Council
- Stephen Reiner, President, Kings Bay YM-YWHA
- Leonard Petlakh, Executive Director, Kings Bay YM-YWHA
- Maya Gurevich, President, New York Association of Jews from the Former Soviet Union
- Inna Arolovich, Vice President, New York Association of Jews from the Former Soviet Union
- Zaki Tamir, Chairman, Crown Heights Jewish Community Council
- Rabbi Eli Cohen, Executive Director, Crown Heights Jewish Community Council
- Avrohom Hecht, Executive Director, JCC of Canarsie
- Michael Rosenbaum, President, Board of Directors, Sid Jacobson JCC
- David Black, Executive Director, Sid Jacobson JCC
- Steven Markowitz, Chairman, Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center of Nassau County
- Fred Teng, President, America China Public Affairs Institute
- Avi Posnick, New York Regional Coordinator, StandWithUs
- Sarri Singer, Founder and Director, Strength to Strength
- Rabbi Haskel Lookstein, Senior Rabbi, Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun
- Rabbi Elie Abadie, Senior Rabbi, Edmond J. Safra Synagogue
- Rabbi Howard Stecker, Senior Rabbi,Temple Israel of Great Neck
- Alan M. Klinger, President Temple Israel of Great Neck
- Jonathan Jaffe, Senior Rabbi, Temple Beth El of Northern Westchester
- Rabbi Rafi Rank, Rabbi, Midway Jewish Center
- Rabbi Marci Bellows, Rabbi, Temple B'nai Torah
- Rabbi Claudio J. Kupchik, Rabbi, Temple Beth El of Manhattan Beach
- Lester Bleich, President, Young Israel of West Hempstead
- Rabbi Dr. Alan F. Lavin, Senior Rabbi, Congregation Beth Tikvah
- Rabbi Ari Jacobson, Rabbi, Young Israel of Monsey and Wesley Hills
- Rabbi Yisroel Gottlieb, Rabbi, Congregation Bais Torah
- Rabbi Jacob Herber, Rabbi, Congregation Beth Israel Ner Tamid
- Ben Davis, Executive Director, Jewish Federation of St. Joseph Valley, Indiana
- Cheri DeKofsky, Executive Director, Jewish Federation of Ventura County-California
- Rabbi David Lerner, Rabbi, Temple Emunah
- Nancy Fisher, Interim Co-Executive Director, Jewish Vocational Service of MetroWest NJ
- Laura Zimmerman, Executive Director, Jewish Community Relations Council of Hartford
Please forward this email to the community leaders with whom you are most familiar and urge them to go to http://tinyurl.com/mtna3zh to sign the form adding their name to the list. Citizens Opposed to Propaganda
Masquerading as Art (COPMA)
Robert G. Samet, Chairman
Mark H. Lazerson, Vice-Chairman
Carol Greenwald, PhD, Treasurer
Barbara Leber, PhD, Secretary
Jeffrey Ward, General Counsel
Ellen Heyman, PhD, Programming Director http://www.COPMA.net
info@copma.net
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