Robert Levi, the National Council of Young Israel’s board chairman, called on the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington to end its financial support for the Washington DC Jewish Community Center’s Theater J, due to its promotion of plays that “advance an anti-Israel point of view.”
Theater J is scheduled to open “The Admission,” an Israeli homage to the popular Arthur Miller play “All My Sons,” in March. Set in Haifa during the first intifada in the late 1980s, the play features an Israeli man engaged to a Palestinian girl. The man and his father confront wartime secrets and experiences, according to Theater J.
In an Aug. 26 letter addressed to the Greater Washington federation’s CEO, Steven Rakitt, Levi wrote that the play “reflects a neo-anti-Israeli perspective, which is contrary to the mission of the Federation.
“The climactic scene of play implies a fictitious 1948 massacre conducted by a colonel in the Israeli defense brigade,” Levi wrote. “Artists who denigrate the Jewish State or its citizens should not be supported by the Federation.”
Theater J and the D.C. federation did not immediately return requests for comment. — jns.org