How to deal with rampant anti-Semitism on US college campuses
Given the anti-Semitism being
taught in the
classrooms on so many North American college campuses, it's not too surprising that
anti-Semitism has become rampant on those same campuses. This is Caroline Glick.
Increasingly, anti-Semites in the US are adopting brownshirt tactics
to violently advance their goal of removing Jews from the public square
and intimidating others into boycotting Israel and those who support it.
Take just a few examples in recent weeks. In late September, several
hundred anti-Semitic rioters at the Port of Oakland prevented
longshoremen from unloading cargo from the Israeli cargo ship Zim
Shanghai. According to media reports, there were 50 policemen from the
Oakland police force on the scene, but their presence did not stop the
rioters or enable the longshoremen to offload the cargo.
None of the anti-Semites were arrested. Zim Shanghai was forced to leave the port with its cargo and sail on to Los Angeles.
The group that organized the assault on the Zim ship calls itself
Block the Boat for Gaza. It operates through its Facebook page where it
openly organizes violent assaults on Israeli shipping. Another assault
is planned, according to its Facebook page, for October 25.
A previous assault in August, during Operation Protective Edge, also
took place with police presence and nonintervention. The Zim Piraeus was
forced as well to pull anchor with its cargo and sail on to Los
Angeles.
Block the Boat for Gaza is supported by another group called Arab Resource and Organizing Center.
On October 8, the Brooklyn Nets played an exhibition game against
Maccabi Tel Aviv at the Barclay Center in downtown Brooklyn. The event
was a benefit for Friends of the IDF. Twelve IDF soldiers wounded during
Operation Protective Edge were guests at the event.
About a hundred anti-Semitic rioters organized outside the event.
They were members of variety of organizations reportedly including
Jewish Voices for Peace, Adalah – New York, and the Direct Action for
Palestine.
After the event, a number of the rioters accosted Leonard Petlakh,
the director of a local Jewish community center, as he was leaving the
arena with his two young sons. According to The Forward, they shouted,
“Free Palestine,” and, “Your people are murderers.” And then one of them
punched him in the face, breaking his nose.
The assailant was arrested. But strangely, he was not charged with
committing a hate crime despite the clear anti-Semitic character of his
crime.
On October 5, hours after the end of Yom Kippur, swastikas were
painted on the walls of AEPi Jewish fraternity at Emory University near
Atlanta. Swastikas were also painted at the Yale University campus. In
July, mailboxes of AEPi members at University of Oregon were defaced
with swastikas.
In August, a Jewish student at Temple University was assaulted by a member of Students for Justice for Palestine.
In a video filmed at the national convention of AEPi and posted on
YouTube two weeks ago, members of AEPi from campuses around the US and
Canada shared the stories of anti-Semitic assaults they and their
friends suffer regularly on their campuses. The attacks described
included, among other things, violent assaults.
Gideon Rafal, the president of AEPi at University of Arizona, described
how he was assaulted while trying to prevent a group of 20 Jew-hating
thugs from forcing their way into his fraternity house.
Rafal said he was struck from behind and lost consciousness.
The injuries he sustained during the assault included a skull
fracture, bleeding in the brain, a concussion and a lower back fracture.
He says that he was hospitalized for three weeks, spending 10 days in
the intensive care unit.
Rafal did not say who the assailants were or what legal measures were
taken against them or what organization if any, they were associated
with.
Other students described threats against Jewish students manning a
table for Birthright Israel programs at Loyola University in Chicago,
and the assault of a Jewish female student at University of California
at Santa Cruz.
Shane, a student at University of Calgary, described how he, his
mother and sister were violently assaulted for counter-protesting at an
anti-Israel protest. The group that sponsored the anti-Israel protest
and whose members attacked him and his family is an official campus
organization.
Shane said he fears for his life as he walks through campus.
In recent years it has become apparent that university campuses have
become breeding grounds for anti-Semitism. The incidents described by
the Jewish students who attended the AEPi convention indicate that the
anti-Israel propaganda taught in the classrooms is increasingly being
translated into anti-Jewish violence outside of them.
Caroline has a plan to deal with it.
Read the whole thing.
Labels: Achille Lauro, American college campuses, anti-Semitism, Bir Zeit on the Hudson, Caroline Glick, Leon Klinghoffer, Metropolitan Opera
A different take on the Death of Leon Klinghoffer
As you can see from the picture, there was a pretty substantial protest on Monday night outside the opening of the Metropolitan Opera's production of
The Death of Leon Klinghoffer. Walter Russell Mead is far more knowledgeable about opera than I will ever be. I don't want to focus on his artistic review of the production, but rather on his comments on the demonstration outside and on the question of whether the opera itself should ever have been staged.
Here's what he says about the demonstrators.
Not everybody in New York shared my opinion; protestors blocked the
street in front of Lincoln Center and we had to pass through police
lines and barricades to get to the show. The lines at the entrance
stretched far out into the plaza as the ushers conducted unusually
thorough searches of bags at the door. With protestors shouting “Shame!
Shame!” and speakers addressing the crowd in heavily miked voices, it
was easily the most dramatic moment I’ve ever seen at a New York arts
venue.
The excitement continued inside; some of the people opposed to the
performance had tickets, and dozens stood to boo or cry out slogans like
“Klinghoffer’s murderers will never be forgiven!” at various points
during the performance. For history of opera aficionados, it was like a
revival of the nineteenth century drama in European opera houses as
rival factions of fans cheered or booed politically or musically
controversial works.
Or the
21st century at the London Philharmonic.
Mead also has some on-point comments about the production itself.
The real problem, and it is a serious one, involves the decision by
John Adams and Alice Goodman to use a family’s tragedy for their art
without the permission of the family’s members. Leon Klinghoffer was not
a public figure; nothing gave Adams and Goodman a moral right to profit
from his death or to use it for political or artistic purposes of their
own without the permission of his loved ones. The opera not only shows
the death of Lisa’s and Ilsa’s father, putting words in his mouth, it
presents a fictionalized portrait of their mother’s shock and reaction
on hearing the news.
No family not already in public life deserves to have their most
intimate and painful moments taken over and made into a public spectacle
against their will. You couldn’t take liberties with Mickey and Minnie
Mouse without having Disney lawyers come at you with cease and desist
orders; Leon Klinghoffer’s family deserves more consideration than a
fictional rodent and without in any way seeking to curtail free speech,
one can regret the decision of two famous and well established artists
to turn someone else’s private grief into a public entertainment.
If I were Peter Gelb, I would have declined to put the opera on, but
not on political grounds. I would not have wanted to associate myself
with what amounts to psychological rape, and I would not have staged it
against the wishes of the murdered man’s family. Dehumanizing Leon
Klinghoffer, turning him from a human being into a symbol in their
political theater, is what the terrorists did on the Achille Lauro; John
Adams and Alice Goodman echo this violation by trampling on the
family’s privacy and wishes, stripping the Klinghoffers of their rights
and dignity and using them as props. There were other ways to write an
opera about the tragic conflict between the Palestinian and Jewish
national movements.
Compare that with the New York Times' critic
avoiding the issue.
Yet, in death, Leon Klinghoffer became a public figure, an innocent but
defiant hero, lost to what still seems like a never-ending conflict in
the Middle East.
No, he didn't. He never made that choice in life, and his family - who were the only ones who could have done so - never made that choice for him in death.
Read the whole thing.
UPDATE 8:19 PM
Some of you might question why one of the labels I put on this post is "anti-Semitism." Please consider this
Facebook comment from Steven Plaut:
Friends
I need your help. I have written a new Opera and I need you to help
demand that the Metropolitan Opera in New York stage it. It is an opera
about the lynching of black people in Alabama and Mississippi by the Ku
Klux Klan. The opera presents the
moral ambiguity of the struggle for self-determination of the Klan
members against the harsh and cruel behavior of the pickaninnies. The
opera is careful not to pick sides and it presents both sides with
musical delight. After the Klansters lynch the darkies, they take off
their hoods and paint themselves as minstrel singers to show their
common humanity with the dead. I am sure you agree that this is a must
performance that the Metropolitan Opera needs to stage! Write the Opera
chairman today!
We all know that hell will freeze over before the opera suggested by Plaut is staged, don't we?
Labels: Achille Lauro, anti-Semitism, Leon Klinghoffer, Metropolitan Opera, New York City, Palestinian terrorism
Thousands expected to protest 'Death of Klinghoffer'
In a bit more than an hour, thousands of people are expected outside New York's Lincoln Center to protest the premiere of '
Death of Klinghoffer' by the Metropolitan Opera.
The Lincoln Square Business Improvement District sent an email last
Friday, alerting area businesses and residents about the protests:
We
have been informed by the New York City Police Department that there
will be a protest on Monday, October 20, 2014, between the hours of
4:00pm and 8:00pm in and around Dante Park (across from Lincoln Center
between 63rd and 64th Street), in connection with The Metropolitan
Opera's Opening Night Performance of The Death of Klinghoffer. It is our
understanding that the NYPD expects 3,000-4,000 people to attend, with
protesters gathering at approximately 2:00pm. The parking lane alongside
Dante Park on Columbus Avenue between 63rd and 64th Street will be
cordoned off with police barricades, which may be moved further west to
close traffic lanes if necessary. It is also our understanding that
there will be a platform set up in the parking lane near West 63rd
Street.
The majority of the demonstrators will be in Dante Park; however, there
will be approximately 40-50 additional demonstrators in front of Lincoln
Center's Josie Robertson Plaza. Expect to see "No Parking" signs
around the perimeter of Dante Park on Monday, October 20 and, depending
on the turnout, there may be temporary lane/crosswalk closures in and
around the Dante Park area. The NYPD will maintain a presence
throughout the event. We will also have our public safety officers
present.
On Monday, the Anti-Defamation League issued a
statement by Lisa and Ilsa Klinghoffer, the daughters of Leon Klinghoffer HY"D (May God Avenge his blood). The statement also appears in the Metropolitan Opera's Playbill program that is being distributed at the Opera, a measure of how much impact the protests have had.
Twenty nine years
ago, our 69 year old, wheel chair-bound father, Leon Klinghoffer, was
shot in the head by Palestinian hijackers on the Achille Lauro cruise
ship. The terrorists threw his body, along with his wheelchair,
overboard into the Mediterranean. A few days later, his body washed up
on the Syrian shore.
Tonight, as you watch The Death of Klinghoffer, a baritone will play the role of Leon Klinghoffer, and sing The Aria of the Falling Body
as he artfully falls into the sea. Competing choruses will highlight
Jewish and Palestinian narratives of suffering and oppression,
selectively presenting the complexities of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
The terrorists, portrayed by four distinguished opera singers, will be
given a back story, an "explanation" for their brutal act of terror and
violence.
We are strong
supporters of the arts, and believe that theater and music can play a
critical role in examining and understanding significant world events. The Death of Klinghoffer
does no such thing. It presents false moral equivalencies without
context, and offers no real insight into the historical reality and the
senseless murder of an American Jew. It rationalizes, romanticizes and
legitimizes the terrorist murder of our father. Our family was not
consulted by the composer and librettist and had no role in the
development of the opera.
Our father was one
of the first American victims of Middle Eastern terrorism. Nearly three
decades later, after PanAm 103, 9/11, and countless other attacks and
threats, Americans live under the deadly threat of terrorism each and
every day.
For our family,
the impact of terrorism is obviously deeply personal. We lost our father
because of the violent political agenda of these terrorists. The trauma
of his murder never goes away. Our father was caring, creative,
thoughtful and smart. As a young man, he invented the rotisserie oven,
the first of its kind. After his stroke, our father continued to use his
one good arm to repair anything that needed fixing. With the help of
our mother, he never allowed his disability to limit his enjoyment of
good times with his family and friends, who meant everything to him. He
loved life and lived it to the fullest. He was an inspiration to us. It
is particularly sad that the life of such a vibrant and gentle man could
end suddenly in such a hate-filled and violent manner.
Our father is also
a universal symbol of the threat terrorism poses to our societies, our
values and our lives. Indeed, we have dedicated our lives since this
tragedy to educating about terrorism, and putting a personal face on the
victims and their families.
Terrorism cannot
be rationalized. It cannot be understood. It can never be tolerated as a
vehicle for political expression or grievance. Unfortunately, The Death of Klinghoffer does all this, and sullies the memory of a fine, principled, sweet man in the process.
In June, following
series of conversations between Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National
Director, representing the wishes of the Klinghoffer family, and Peter
Gelb, General Manager of the Metropolitan Opera, the Met announced that
it would cancel a global simulcast of the controversial John Adams opera
in response to concerns that the opera’s biased portrayal of events
surrounding the hijacking of the cruise ship Achille Lauro could foment
anti-Semitism globally or legitimize terrorism. At that time, Mr.
Foxman said: "Obviously from our point of view and from that of the
Klinghoffer sisters, we would have hoped that the Metropolitan Opera
would have stayed away from mounting such a problematic opera," Mr.
Foxman said. "We certainly did not want to see the Met production
simulcast into theaters around the world. The Met was very open to
hearing our concerns. After listening to our views, they have agreed to
cancel the simulcasts and to take steps to ensure that the Klinghoffer
family’s perspective is clearly heard by opera patrons."
In 1986, the Klinghoffer family established the Leon and Marilyn Klinghoffer Memorial Foundation of the Anti-Defamation League, which is dedicated to which is dedicated to developing educational, legislative and legal responses to terrorism.
Even Metropolitan Opera director Peter Gelb understands that
the public is furious over the eight performances that are to begin tonight in Lincoln Center.
In anticipation of the rally, there will be a
“heavy police presence” at Monday night’s opening, the New York Post
reported, citing police sources.
“It’s been a steady diet of e-mails, phone
calls and letters for a couple of months now,” Met director Peter Gelb
told the Sunday Times. “The people who don’t want this opera to be
performed are not silly; they are very angry.”
The Jewish organizations will host a press
conference at 5 p.m. ahead of the protest. Rabbi Avi Weiss and other
rabbinical leaders are set to host a vigil outside Lincoln Center in
memory of Klinghoffer ahead of the protest.
The rally is organized by some 50 Jewish and
Catholic groups, including the Zionist Organization of America, One
Israel Fund, One Family Fund, Simon Wiesenthal Center, and Catholic
League. Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani reportedly will be the
keynote speaker at the event.
I hope that Gelb has trouble sleeping at night, and that the Met loses enough money on this fiasco to force it to close. Arrogant _ _ _ _ _ _ _ s.
Labels: Achille Lauro, Anti-Defamation League, Jewish anti-Semitism, Leon Klinghoffer, Metropolitan Opera, New York City
It figures: Klinghoffer creator a (former) Jewish anti-Semite
Alice Goodman - the creator of the terror-glorifying opera 'Death of Klinghoffer' - is
a former Jew turned Anglican Priest (Hat Tip:
Dan F). Going back to the prophet Isaiah, we have been warned that those who would destroy us will spring forth from among us. A quick review of Goodman's recent Twitter entries shows a visceral hatred for Jews, and for Israel and those who support it. Here are some examples.
Not really. In fact, most American Jews support a 'two-state solution.' If the protest were taking place in Israel, Goodman might have a point. Unless, of course, she supports the extirpation of Israel's existence (maybe she does).
It's apparently inconceivable to Ms. Goodman that anyone could feel revulsion at the use of dead Jews as 'art,' and at the glorification of terrorism that her 'opera' aims to accomplish.
It should also be clear to all of you that Ms.Goodman's motivations have nothing to do with art and everything to do with hatred of Jews and Israel. There is indeed no anti-Semite like a Jewish anti-Semite.
For those who can make it this evening to protest in New York:
Labels: Achille Lauro, Jewish anti-Semitism, Leon Klinghoffer, Metropolitan Opera, New York City
Rudy Giuliani will be there, will you?
Former Republican Presidential candidate, New York City Mayor and US Attorney Rudolph Giuliani will be holding a press conference on Monday in connection with the protest against the opening of the Death of Leon Klinghoffer at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. (Received by email).
There will be a press conference at Lincoln Center on Monday evening, October 20th at 5:00 PM, across the street from the Lincoln Center Plaza at Broadway & 65th Street to protest the first evening that “The Death of Klinghoffer” will be shown at the Metropolitan Opera.
Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani will be the keynote speaker at the press conference, which will be followed by a protest.
Additional confirmed participants include Congressman Peter King, Former NY Governor David Paterson, Criminal Defense Attorney Ben Brafman, Queens Borough President Melinda Katz, and Rabbi Joseph Potasnik.
Giuliani famously expelled Yasir Arafat from a concert for world leaders at Lincoln Center in 1995, explaining he could never forgive Arafat’s acts of terror. As the Mayor famously said, "I would not invite Yasir Arafat to anything, anywhere, anytime, anyplace. He has never been held to answer for the murders that he was implicated in." The Mayor said at the time, "The U.N. is one thing, the peace process is another thing. When we're having a party and a celebration, I would rather not have someone who has been implicated in the murders of Americans there, if I have the discretion not to have him there."
Rabbi Avi Weiss and a group of Rabbinical leaders will hold a prayer vigil commencing at Noon at Lincoln Center Plaza at Broadway & 65th Street in memory of Leon Klinghoffer's soul, being desecrated by the opera.
This is the continuation of a series of efforts opposing Lincoln Center’s decision to air this play.
If you're in the New York area tomorrow, you should be there.
Labels: Achille Lauro, anti-Semitism, Leon Klinghoffer, Metropolitan Opera, Palestinian terrorism, Rudy Giuliani
The moral authority to destroy the Met
One of the best letters to the editor you will ever see was written to the New York Times in response to its editorial in favor of '
The Death of Klinghoffer.' It was written by
Judea Pearl, the father of murdered Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl HY"D (May God Avenge his blood).
In
joining protesters of the New York Metropolitan Opera’s production of
“The Death of Klinghoffer,” I echo the silenced voice of our son, Daniel
Pearl, and the silenced voices of other victims of terror who were
murdered, maimed or left heartbroken by the new menace of our
generation, a savagery that the Met has decided to elevate to a
normative, two-sided status worthy of artistic expression.
We are told that the composer tried to understand the hijackers, their motivations and their grievances.
I
submit that there has never been a crime in human history lacking
grievance and motivation. The 9/11 lunatics had profound motivations,
and the murderers of our son, Daniel Pearl, had very compelling
“grievances.”
In
the last few weeks we have seen with our own eyes that Hamas and the
Islamic State have grievances, too. There is nothing more enticing to a
would-be terrorist than the prospect of broadcasting his “grievances” in
Lincoln Center, the icon of American culture.
Yet
civilized society has learned to protect itself by codifying right from
wrong, separating the holy from the profane, distinguishing that which
deserves the sound of orchestras from that which commands our
unconditional revulsion. The Met has trashed this distinction and thus
betrayed its contract with society.
Read the whole thing.
Labels: Achille Lauro, Daniel Pearl, Leon Klinghoffer, New York City, New York Times, Palestinian terrorism, terror victims
Thousands protest terror glorifying 'Death of Leon Klinghoffer'
It was rather crowded outside Lincoln Center late Monday afternoon. While yours truly was
at Kennedy Airport waiting to return to Israel for Rosh HaShanna, several thousand people gathered outside Lincoln Center to protest the Metropolitan Opera's glorification of a terror attack that took place nearly 30 years ago.
There's an extensive report with over an hour and a half of video and many pictures and slides
here, and I urge you all to check it out. But I want to share one quote with you that really caught me eye.
And finally, from writer, Jack Kemp:
“One of the lines in this anti-semitic opera is: “wherever poor people are gathered they can find Jews getting fat. America is one big Jew.” So who is this “exploiter Jew,” the one that Peter Gelb,
the director of the Metropolitan Opera and himself a Jew whose father
was a New York Times Managing Editor, allows to be denigrated on his
stage?
.
Leon Klinghoffer was born a poor Jew from the Lower East Side, a man who
invented an electric mini-grill you could also wash in your sink, an
early predecessor of the current George Forman Grill. I recall one of
these mini-grills in my home as a child in the 1950s. From this, Mr. Klinghoffer was able to create jobs for a number of people in manufacturing and sales and to support his family.
.
“John
Adams can work his clunky, chunky music to his heart’s content. And so I
suppose can Alice Goodman work her poetry. Ms. Goodman was born a Jew.
She is now an Anglican priest, serving the Church of England, first as
chaplain at Trinity College, Cambridge, latterly at a group of parishes
near the university. The truth is that it is not Mr. Adams’ music that
is at the core of the controversy. It is Ms. Goodman’s words. She is no
free spirit in this church, which has been fighting with the Jewish
nation and the British Jewish community for decades. “
This
so-called opera is actually a sophisticated attack by wealthy,
cosmopolitan Jews on a self-made New York Jew with limited education who
had the audacity to make something of his life.”
Leon Klinghoffer had more integrity and American entrepreneurial spirit in his little finger than Peter Gelb has produced in his entire miserable life. And that's the truth.
Read the whole thing.
Labels: Achille Lauro, Leon Klinghoffer, New York City, Palestinian terrorism, terror victims
'We are all Leon Klinghoffer'
I hope they get far more than 100....
Labels: Leftist anti-Semitism, Leon Klinghoffer, Palestinian terrorism
Metropolitan Opera sinks to new low in terror glorification
The New York Metropolitan Opera has sunk to a new low. The poster above is how they're promoting their new opera
Death of Klinghoffer, which celebrates the 1985 murder of a wheelchair-bound Jew by 'Palestinian' terrorists aboard the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro.
The Metropolitan Opera has sunk to a new low in its
glorification of the Palestinian terrorist murder of wheelchair-bound
Leon Klinghoffer, on the
Achille Lauro in 1995, say outraged Jewish groups.
In its promotional materials, including a video on its official website,
the Metropolitan Opera features a Palestinian terrorist pointing a gun
at the back of a wheel-chair bound Klinghoffer, when he is about to
murder him.
“The Met Opera is clearly trying to sell
tickets off of an evil Palestinian terrorist who is in the process of
murdering a crippled Jew in the back in cold-blood” said Mark Langfan,
President of Americans for a Safe Israel (AFSI). The group, headed by
Langfan and Helen Freedman, is spearheading an unprecedented coalition
of over 60 Jewish and non-Jewish organizations for the demonstration
planned for this coming Monday, September 22, at 4:30 pm in front
Metropolitan Opera at the Lincoln Center Plaza at Broadway and 65th
Street.
Langfan said that the Met Opera’s clear
organizational message is that “killing a Jew is not just a good thing,
but it’s ‘Art.’ The Met Opera, and all its board of directors are
actively promoting Jew-murder in its ugliest form. It’s rank, pure
Jew-hate, anti-Semitism in its most vile form.”
For those of you who have forgotten what happened to
Leon Klinghoffer HY"D (May God Avenge his blood)....
In 1985, Klinghoffer, then 69, retired and in a wheelchair, was on a cruise on the Achille Lauro along with his wife Marilyn (née Windwehr), to celebrate their 36th wedding anniversary. On October 7, 1985, four hijackers from the Palestine Liberation Front (PLF) took control of the liner off Egypt as it was sailing from Alexandria to Port Said, Egypt. Holding the passengers and crew hostage, they ordered the captain to sail to Tartus, Syria, and demanded the release of 50 Palestinians then in Israeli prisons, including the Lebanese prisoner Samir Kuntar.
The next day, after being refused permission by the Syrian government to dock at Tartus, the hijackers singled out Klinghoffer, a Jew, for murder, shooting him in the forehead and chest as he sat in his wheelchair. They then forced the ship's barber and a waiter to throw his body and wheelchair overboard. Marilyn Klinghoffer, who did not witness the shooting, was told by the hijackers that he had been moved to the infirmary. She only learned the truth after the hijackers left the ship at Port Said. PLO Foreign Secretary Farouq Qaddumi said that perhaps the terminally ill Marilyn Klinghoffer had killed her husband for insurance money.[4] However, the PLO later accepted full responsibility for murdering Mr. Klinghoffer.[5]
Initially, the hijackers were granted safe passage to Tunisia, but U.S. President Ronald Reagan ordered a U.S. fighter plane to force the get-away plane to land at Naval Air Station Sigonella in Italy. After an extradition dispute, Italian authorities arrested and later tried the Palestinian terrorists, but let Abu Abbas fly to Yugoslavia.
Klinghoffer's body was found by the Syrians on October 14–15, and it was returned to the United States around October 20. His funeral, with 800 in attendance, was held at Temple Shaaray Tefila in New York City.[6] Leon Klinghoffer was buried at Beth David Memorial Park in Kenilworth, New Jersey. Four months after her husband's murder, Marilyn Klinghoffer (October 5, 1926 – February 9, 1986) died of colon cancer, aged 59. The Klinghoffers are survived by two daughters, Ilsa and Lisa Klinghoffer.
By the way, the Met isn't the first group to try to make an opera out of Klinghoffer's murder.
American composer John Adams' second opera, The Death of Klinghoffer, based on the events of 1985, opened to great controversy in 1991. The concept for the opera was suggested by director Peter Sellars and it featured a libretto by Alice Goodman. The Los Angeles Opera shared in the work's commission but never presented it, after the work was criticized by some as overly sympathetic to the terrorists. A Prix Italia-winning television version of the opera, starring Sanford Sylvan and Christopher Maltman, and directed by Penny Woolcock, was screened by United Kingdom's Channel 4 in 2003.
I hope that the Met goes out of business over this. And I hope that those of you in the New York area show up to demonstrate against it on Monday. Despicable....
Labels: Achille Lauro, Leon Klinghoffer, New York City, Palestinian terrorism, terror victims
