There has been quite an uproar regarding the Metropolitan Opera’s staging of the opera “The Death of Klinghoffer”. I for one defend its presentation and the creativity of this opera. I object to those who are protesting, calling for a boycott and actually spewing hate against The Met, its administration and those who are participating. I do not feel it is anti-Semitic. To oppose rendering the emotions and feelings of the terrorist, however horrible and yes pathetic, is an act against culture, free speech and creativity. I feel that we need to separate our political feeling from an objective support of art and free speech. Just as I disagreed with the political views in Ameri Baraka’s poems I recognize his skills as a poet. I disagreed when he was removed as Poet Laureate of New Jersey. Although he was, in my view, anti-Semitic, homophobic and racist in much of what he said he was still a great poet. We need to separate the political sentiments from the art in all instances. To call for boycotts, protests and even acts of violence against any cultural institution is wrong. Former Mayor Guiliani did the same thing he is doing now when he tried to defund the Brooklyn Museum based on one if its exhibits when he was Mayor. He states that he, as a fan of opera, he did listen to the opera on a CD and thought that the chorus and the music were very good. If anybody does not like the political ramifications of any creative art that person should not go and see it. That goes for books, movies, plays, museum exhibits and operas. There have been many books and art I have seen which I consider anti-Semitic, homophobic, anti-Christian, anti-Islamic, etc. I say to myself or to others I am with “horrible”. That is my view. I might or might not appreciate the creativity of the art. It does not make me anti anything. I understand how people feel that with anti-Semitism on the rise this is not the time for a play such as “The Death of Klinghoffer”. I doubt that anybody will become anti-Semitic if they see it. As a fairly relgious Jew I know I am not anti-Semitic.
Would we have condoned the burning and censorship and the fatwa issued after Sir Salman Rushdie’s “The Satanic Verses” was published in 1988? Of course we would not. Would we have condoned the burning of the books in Nazi Germany? Of course not. Should “The Merchant of Venice” be banned from production or the book banned from our libraries? Of course it should not. Should we ban “Gone with the Wind”, “The Birth of A Nation”, “Othello”? They all have racist, anti-Semitic themes using stereotypes and worse. Is it wrong to compare these acts of censorship with the protests and calls for boycotts and even calls for violence against the performance of “The Death of Klinghoffer”? I feel it is. Some will disagree. In this nation they have that right.
“The Death of Klinghoffer” does not endorse terrorism in any way. It dramatizes it. Should we boycott creativity? Should we censor things we do not like? I feel “NO”. There are anti-Semitic and stereotypical lines spoken by the terrorists. One such line is “America is One Big Jew”. We have seen and heard many anti-Semitic and anti-Israel slogans reported in newspapers and on TV. We have seen them on signs carried by anti-Semites and of people who do not support Israel. Is it any different that these words are in an opera? We accept what newspapers show. Is the news media anti-Semitic? No! We see stereotypes and prejudices all of the time. The “N” word was used in Driving Miss Daisy. At one point when Ms. Daisy (Jessica Tandy) could not find a can of tuna she immediately said that Hoke ( Morgan Freeman) must have stolen it. Also when mentioning an event she was going to at which Dr. Martin Luther King was to appear she said to Hoke “ I guess you know Dr. King very well”. Should we ban Driving Miss Daisy for its stereotypes and discriminatory words? Of course not!!
There are views on both sides. Here are the views of two leaders who I respect very much. We can agree to disagree in The United States of America.
Congressman Eliot Engel stated “It is hard to stay silent when the killing of an innocent man has been trivialized and exploited. The men who murdered Leon Klinghoffer were terrorists working to destroy Israel, and to undermine any hopes for peace. It’s a disgrace that the Met has chosen to feature an opera with such vile undertones, particularly given the rising current of anti-Semitism across the globe.”
Mayor Bill de Blasio Stated: “I really think we have to be very careful in a free society to respect that cultural institutions will portray works of art, put on operas, plays, that there will be art exhibits in museum,” de Blasio said Monday at an unrelated press conference.” And in a free society we respect that. We don’t have to agree with what’s in the exhibit but we agree with the right of the artist and the cultural institution to put that forward to the public.”
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