Uncategorized
Broadway’s Jews gather in response to neo-Nazi protest
(New York Jewish Week) – Twenty-four hours after neo-Nazi agitators heckled ticket-holders outside the first preview of “Parade,” a musical about a notorious antisemitic incident, Jewish members of New York’s theater community came together to share their emotions and reactions and look to the future.
The gathering, organized by producer and actor Ari Axelrod, was held on a rainy Wednesday afternoon in a rehearsal space at Open Jar Studios in Times Square. It was just three blocks north of the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre, where “Parade” is currently in previews. About 50 people from all ranks of the theater industry — from Broadway producers and marquee stars to undergraduate students in college shows — joined the conversation.
Starring Jewish actor Ben Platt, “Parade” tells the story of Leo Frank, a Jewish factory manager accused and found guilty of murdering a girl who worked for him, despite little evidence. In 1915, Frank was kidnapped from jail and lynched by a mob, and the case led to the creation of the Anti-Defamation League and a resurgence of interest in the Ku Klux Klan.
At the show’s first preview on Feb. 21, protestors who identified with the National Socialist Movement, a neo-Nazi group headquartered in Florida, accused Frank of being a pedophile and condemned audience members for paying to support pedophiles and Jews.
“The story about Leo Frank is not a new one. They could be protesting anywhere. But there is a reason they knew that that play was happening and where it was happening,” said Axelrod, who told the New York Jewish Week that he has been thinking about holding a gathering in response to antisemitism for nearly two years. “It feels like they came into our home, not just our home as Jews, but our home as theater artists.”
Axelrod, 28, opened by leading the Shehechiyanu, a prayer of gratitude, and a round of deep breaths.
“The intention for today is not to find a solution to the rise in antisemitism or even the solution to what happened yesterday,” Axelrod told the crowd. “The intention is to be in a space and find community and gather as Jews, which is what we’ve been doing for thousands of years. To commiserate and talk and bear witness to how we’re feeling and how other people are feeling, to be seen and heard and held and valued and validated as an individual and as a member of a community.”
The room was full of Jewish and some non-Jewish people in the theater industry of all ages who wanted to express their thoughts and ideas about the protests. (Julia Gergely)
Many in the room felt fear, sadness, frustration and anger at the events. For an assistant on the production team of “Parade” — who asked to remain anonymous because he came to process his own feelings and not as a representative of the show — “it was emotional, especially because not everyone on the team is Jewish. So just being there as a Jewish person, hearing them say that to people going into the show was hard.”
However, he noted the importance of committing to see and work on the show. “Just being at the show last night was its own protest to what they were saying,” he said, adding that the team behind “Parade” is committed to ensuring a safe environment for everyone involved and that they don’t want to let the protests deter people from seeing the show, which is scheduled to run through Aug. 6.
Elliott Masie, a Broadway producer who was on the line with his wife when the threats and jeers began, said his initial reaction was surprise. “I couldn’t discern what they were about at first. They tried to pretend that they were against pedophiles, but then their rhetoric escalated and they started to go up to people in the line and say ‘You paid so much for this, to advocate for a Jew.’ The moment I heard them say the word ‘Jew,’ I realized what they were,” he told the New York Jewish Week.
“The hardest part was that it seemed like most people coming into the theater didn’t understand who they were,” Masie, 72, added.
Still, he said, the show was wonderful. “I’ve never been at a first preview that had as prolonged an ovation. In some ways, they stole the moment. We have to give the moment back and give the moment to all of us. The ultimate love and support we need to do is show the cast and the company that we’re here,” he said.
Over the last year, Jewish stories have been having a moment on Broadway and off, with “Funny Girl,” “Leopoldstadt” and “Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish” all coming to the stage in 2022. Surrounding each show has been discussions of their relevance at time when watchdog groups have been reporting a rise in antisemitic incidents.
“The entire cast of our show and company was scared last night that we were going to walk out to something similar,” said David Krumhotlz, who is in the final weeks of his role as patriarch Hermann Merz in “Leopoldstadt,” Tom Stoppard’s play about the Holocaust. “Thank God it didn’t. We stand in solidarity not only with ‘Parade,’ but with the entire Jewish Broadway community.”
Yael Chanukov, a cast member of “Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish,” spoke about the safety and security discussions the cast and crew had during the show’s run and the fear and anxiety she felt at times doing such a proudly Jewish show that otherwise was one of the most fulfilling experiences of her life.
The Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre, where “Parade” is in previews, Feb. 22, 2023. (Julia Gergely)
For many, it was an exhalation of years of frustration and confusion over minor and major antisemitism they said they experienced in the theater industry and beyond.
While Axelrod said the goal of Wednesday’s gathering wasn’t to find solutions, by the end of the evening, he had cemented an idea for a Jewish advocacy coalition within the theater industry. He said it might offer resources and tools for how to speak up and show up to support the Jewish theater community.
Representatives from the Anti-Defamation League and Jews for Racial & Economic Justice who were at the meeting offered to help get contacts and funding if the idea were to get off the ground.
“The general tenor that I’m getting is that no one is asking the theater community to make the fight against antisemitism the top priority. Just make it a priority,” Axelrod said.
Actor and writer Mike Haber, 31, had tickets for Wednesday night’s performance of “Parade.”
“Last night, I literally couldn’t even sleep because of what happened,” he said. “This is so beautiful to see so many theater people and we’re all coping with the same emotions and feelings.”
Ninety minutes before the Wednesday evening performance began, the rain had stopped and all was calm in front of the theater. Haber took pictures and burst out singing the show’s tunes. “I love this,” he said. “I can’t wait to see it.”
—
The post Broadway’s Jews gather in response to neo-Nazi protest appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
Uncategorized
Netanyahu says he is formally seeking the pardon Trump requested on his behalf
(JTA) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is formally seeking a preemptive pardon of the criminal charges he has long faced, saying in a video address ending his prosecution was needed to bring unity to a divided nation.
“I am certain, as are many others in the nation, that an immediate end to the trial would greatly help lower the flames and promote broad reconciliation — something our country desperately needs,” Netanyahu said in the speech on Sunday as his attorneys filed a petition with Israeli President Isaac Herzog, who is responsible for granting pardons.
Netanyahu’s speech comes weeks after U.S. President Donald Trump wrote to Herzog advocating a pardon, which Herzog said he could not consider because Israeli law requires the accused or his family to make the request.
Netanyahu has three legal cases open against him, on charges of fraud, bribery and breach of trust. They relate to allegations that he accepted lavish gifts in exchange for political favors and that he used his position to secure positive media coverage. The trial in the cases began in 2020 and has proceeded in fits and starts, with hearings routinely canceled as Netanyahu attends to Israel’s affairs, including the multi-front war and a protest movement that Netanyahu and his allies allege has been stoked through foreign interference.
In his speech, Netanyahu did not acknowledge guilt and said, as he long has contended, that the charges against him were political in nature. He alleged that crimes had been committed in the case against him. He also cited Trump’s advocacy on his behalf.
“President Trump called for an immediate end to the trial so that, together with him, I could advance even more vigorously the vital interests shared by Israel and the United States, within a time window that may never return,” Netanyahu said.
Herzog’s office said it would consider the pardon request in accordance with Israeli law. Netanyahu’s critics lambasted the request, saying it amounted to another assault on country’s legal norms by the prime minister, whose right-wing government has led an effort to overhaul the judiciary.
“I call on President Herzog: You cannot grant Netanyahu a pardon without an admission of guilt, an expression of remorse, and an immediate withdrawal from political life,” tweeted opposition leader Yair Lapid while making a video address of his own.
Netanyahu’s request comes as the country nears elections that must take place within the next year. Netanyahu was reelected most recently in 2022, after the charges against him were in place.
A previous prime minister who faced legal charges, Ehud Olmert, resigned before being charged and requested a pardon only after being convicted and jailed.
The post Netanyahu says he is formally seeking the pardon Trump requested on his behalf appeared first on The Forward.
Uncategorized
After facing criticism, Dublin tables proposal to rename Herzog Park — for now
(JTA) — A proposal to rename a Dublin park that honors one of Ireland’s most famous Jewish emigres has been tabled following criticism from the Israeli president and the Irish prime minister.
But the bid to rename Herzog Park could be revived if the Dublin City Council’s naming committee follows a different procedure, the council’s chief executive said in a statement on Sunday, a day before the planned vote.
The park was renamed in 1995 for Chaim Herzog, the son of the first Irish chief rabbi who became Israel’s sixth president in 1983, seven years after famously ripping up a United Nations resolution that declared “Zionism as Racism.” His son, Isaac Herzog, is the president of Israel today.
Pro-Palestinian activists called for the park to be stripped of the Herzog name during the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, citing Chaim Herzog’s role as a prominent defender of Zionism. Last year, activists covered all references to the Herzog family at the park with Palestinian flags and added placards with the name “Hind Rajab Park,” referring to the 6-year-old Gaza girl killed during the war who has become a symbol of pro-Palestinian advocacy.
The campaign came amid staunch pro-Palestinian sentiment in Ireland, where Israel recently shuttered its Dublin embassy, citing “antisemitic rhetoric of the Irish government,” including its recognition of an independent Palestinian state and its support for anti-Israel resolutions in international bodies during the war in Gaza.
Isaac Herzog’s office had expressed concern about the renaming proposal, saying that it believed the park’s new name would be “Free Palestine.” It said in a statement on Saturday that stripping the Herzog name from the park would harm “the unique expression of the historical connection between the Irish and Jewish peoples” and undermine the legacy of Chaim Herzog, whose father supported Irish independence and who himself fought in the British Army during World War II.
“Removing the Herzog name, if it happens, would be a shameful and disgraceful move,” the statement said. “We hope that the legacy of a figure at the forefront of establishing the relations between Israel and Ireland, and the fight against antisemitism and tyranny, will still get the respect it deserves today.”
On Sunday, Ireland’s prime minister, Micheál Martin, stepped in, condemning the renaming proposal and calling for its withdrawal.
“The proposal would erase the distinctive and rich contribution to Irish life of the Jewish community over many decades, including actual participation in the Irish War of Independence and the emerging state,” he said in a statement. “This proposal is a denial of our history and will without a doubt be seen as antisemitic. It is overtly divisive and wrong.”
Later in the day, reports emerged that the council was indeed withdrawing the proposal, which had by then drawn condemnation from Jewish groups around the world as well. In a statement, the council’s chief executive, Richard Shakespeare, confirmed that the proposal would not come up for a vote at Monday’s meeting.
Shakespeare said the council’s commemorations and naming committee had not followed the “statutory procedures” required for a “secret ballot” to approve a renaming and that he would be sending the proposal back to the committee for reconsideration. He offered an apology without addressing the content of the criticism surrounding the proposal.
“On behalf of the Executive of the City Council, I wish to apologise for this administrative oversight,” Shakespeare said. “A detailed review of the administrative mis-steps will now be undertaken and a report furnished to the Lord Mayor and Councillors.”
Herzog Park is located in a neighborhood of Dublin that is home to other symbols of the city’s bygone Jewish past. It sits near the intersection of Zion Road and Orwell Road and is located a short walk from the city’s progressive synagogue, Orthodox synagogue and a new Chabad center, which recently opened Ireland’s first kosher restaurant in decades to acclaim from both Jewish and non-Jewish diners.
The City Council is also involved in a proposal to build apartments on the site of the Orthodox synagogue, which the Jewish community put up for sale several years ago amid what local Jewish leaders said was a shift toward secularism among the city’s Jews.
“Herzog Park is more than a name on a sign. For the neighbouring Jewish families and schools, it is a place filled with memory, and a quiet reminder that our community has deep roots in Dublin,” Yoni Wieder, who was inaugurated as Ireland’s chief rabbi last year, said in a statement.
“When the park was named in honour of Chaim Herzog in 1995, it was a recognition not just of one man, but a chapter of shared Irish-Jewish history. That history has not changed, and it cannot be undone by motions or votes,” Wieder said. “The Jewish story in Ireland deserves to be acknowledged, not quietly removed.”
The post After facing criticism, Dublin tables proposal to rename Herzog Park — for now appeared first on The Forward.
Uncategorized
Palestinian-American teen from Florida freed from Israeli detention after 9 months
(JTA) — A Palestinian-American teenager was freed last week after nine months in an Israeli detention facility, following advocacy for his release by 27 Democratic lawmakers.
Mohammed Ibrahim, 16, of Palm Bay, Florida, was arrested in February while visiting his family in the West Bank. Israeli officials said he had thrown rocks at Israeli settlers, an allegation that Ibrahim and the Council on American-Islamic Relations denied.
Ibrahim initially confessed to throwing the rocks, but later said in an affidavit that he had confessed out of “sheer fear” after he claimed that the “interrogator threatened that if I did not comply, he would instruct the soldiers to beat me,” according to the Associated Press. Israeli law considers stone-throwing a serious offense punishable by up to 20 years in prison.
After a recent hearing in his case was delayed, he was released on Thursday. His family told the BBC that he had lost weight and was suffering from conditions sustained during his detention.
Ibrahim’s detention was first reported by the Guardian in July after his cousin, 20-year-old Palestinian-American Sayfollah Musallet, was killed during a confrontation with Israeli settlers in the West Bank.
The detention and killing took place amid flaring tensions in the West Bank, including sustained attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinian villages and farmers, that U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has denounced.
In October, a group of 27 Democratic lawmakers signed onto a letter urging Rubio to pressure the Israeli government to release Ibrahim.
“We write with grave concern regarding the detention without trial of Mohammed Zaher Ibrahim. Mohammed is a U.S. citizen from Florida who was reportedly blindfolded, handcuffed, and arrested on February 16th, 2025 when Israeli forces reportedly entered his family home in al-Mazra’a ash-Sharqiya at 3 a.m.,” the letter read. Some of the lawmakers called attention to Ibrahim’s cause subsequently, as well.
In a statement to the BBC, the state department said it was providing consular support to Ibrahim’s family, adding that “the Trump Administration has no higher priority than the safety and security of US citizens.”
The post Palestinian-American teen from Florida freed from Israeli detention after 9 months appeared first on The Forward.