"Fiddler on the Roof" Interrupted by "Heil Hitler! Heil Trump!"

[AGBF]

People watching a touring production of the popular musical "Fiddler on the Roof" about life in a Jewish community in Russia before the Russian Revolution were startled by someone shouting, "Heil Hitler! Heil Trump!".

An excerpt from an article in "The New York Times" is below.

"The first act of 'Fiddler on the Roof,' one of the most popular American musicals, which is performed frequently across the country, had just ended at the Hippodrome Theater in Baltimore on Wednesday night. The Russians had staged a pogrom against the Jewish residents of a village — an organized act of ethnic persecution — storming a wedding celebration.

Connor Drew and his girlfriend had just stepped into the lobby after the house lights went up when he heard a disturbance in the upper balcony.

There was shouting. In a display that shocked audience members, a man stood up and yelled 'Heil Hitler, Heil Trump' repeatedly during the intermission, according to several witnesses. It was the latest in a recent string of anti-Semitic incidents in the United States. Mr. Drew said the man was escorted out minutes later.

'Everyone was whispering and consoling everyone because a lot of people were really startled,' Mr. Drew said in an interview. A woman sitting nearby was on her phone expressing fear that there was about to be another mass shooting, he added. 'I wasn’t afraid of violence. I was just more afraid of the situation in general and seeing how people were shaken by it.'

Beth Pendergast attended the touring production with her 23-year-old daughter. She was sitting near the man in the balcony when he started to yell, and said the incident was 'frightening and disturbing.'

'I’m like shrinking in my seat thinking, "Oh my God, does this guy have a gun?"' Ms. Pendergast said."

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/15/theater/fiddler-on-the-roof-heil-hitler-heil-trump.html

 

[ice empress]

Omg. I have no words.

It saddens and shocks me to the core that there is still such hatred and ignorance in this world.

 

[Jambalaya]

I have no words, either. I am constantly dismayed at the fact that anti-Semitism still exists. I have no idea why Jews have always been so persecuted by certain factions. There is literally no explanation for it - Judaism is such a peaceful faith. Anti-Semitism sickens me to my very core. I can't even imagine what it must be like to know that there are who people hate you so much just because of your faith, and the fact that there is clearly anti-Semitic feeling in America today is totally horrifying.

 

[Ellen]

I have no words, either. I am constantly dismayed at the fact that anti-Semitism still exists. I have no idea why Jews have always been so persecuted by certain factions. There is literally no explanation for it - Judaism is such a peaceful faith. Anti-Semitism sickens me to my very core. I can't even imagine what it must be like to know that there are who people hate you so much just because of your faith, and the fact that there is clearly anti-Semitic feeling in America today is totally horrifying.

Actually there is J. Board rules don't really allow me to elaborate, but it's biblical. They have been persecuted since the beginning of time. If you do a search, you can find an in depth answer.

 

[missy]

I have no words, either. I am constantly dismayed at the fact that anti-Semitism still exists. I have no idea why Jews have always been so persecuted by certain factions. There is literally no explanation for it - Judaism is such a peaceful faith. Anti-Semitism sickens me to my very core. I can't even imagine what it must be like to know that there are who people hate you so much just because of your faith, and the fact that there is clearly anti-Semitic feeling in America today is totally horrifying.

Elie Wiesel discussed this very topic at length and came to the conclusion that there is NO good reason. But IMO that is stating the obvious.

http://ihr.org/other/anti-semitism-why-does-it-exist-dec-2013

Elie Wiesel is one of the best-known Jewish authors and community figures of our age. His memoir of wartime experiences, entitled Night, has been obligatory reading in many classrooms. He’s a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, and for years has been a professor at Boston University. Wiesel is considered to be an authority on anti-Semitism, but he says that he’s puzzled by it. The source and endurance of anti-Semitism in history remains a mystery, he told an audience in Germany in April 2004. /1 In another address he described anti-Semitism as an “irrational disease.” Speaking at a conference in October 2002, Wiesel went on to say: “The world has changed in the last 2,000 years, and only anti-Semitism has remained ... The only disease that has not found its cure is anti-Semitism.” /2

Abraham Foxman expressed grave concern about what he sees as rising hostility toward Jews: “I am convinced we currently face as great a threat to the safety and security of the Jewish people as the one we faced in the 1930s – if not a greater one.” /3 Remarkably, he too claimed to be perplexed about the reasons for the origin and durability of discord between Jews and non-Jews. “I think of anti-Semitism as a disease,” Foxman writes. “Anti-Semitism also resembles a disease in being fundamentally irrational ... It’s a spiritual and psychological illness.”


...it’s an entirely irrational and baseless “disease,” there’s no relation between what Jews do, and what non-Jews think of Jews. In their view, the strife and tension between Jews and non-Jews that has persisted over the centuries is not caused by, or is even related to, Jewish behavior.
/4

https://www.ushmm.org/confront-antisemitism/antisemitism-the-longest-hatred

http://www.kabbalah.info/bb/why-do-people-hate-jews/

 

[OreoRosies86]

 

[ksinger]

One piece on this incident that I read, quoted on person as saying they thought the man should get more than a light tap on the wrist, that shouting that in a theatre nowadays is just about equivalent to shouting "FIRE!!" Given the fear of being shot by this whackjob, and how people started rushing to get out of the theatre, I think that's fair. He should have gotten a disorderly conduct at least. But, hey, free speech, right?

 

[Madam Bijoux]

It’s a pity that the ignorant clods didn’t sit quietly and watch the show. They could have learned many important values and lessons.

 

[LLJsmom]

Is this the closest to the puke emoji we have?

 

[AV_]

.

First thing that comes to mind: I'd be Hell if that were my name yelled out!

 

[doberman]

And it's a sad commentary on our society that my first thought was thank God he didnt open fire with an automatic weapon.

 

[Calliecake]

And it's a sad commentary on our society that my first thought was thank God he didnt open fire with an automatic weapon.

That was my first thought as well. Everyone in that theater had to be terrified.

 

[AGBF]

And it's a sad commentary on our society that my first thought was thank God he didnt open fire with an automatic weapon.

That's what people in the theatre were waiting for: the sound of gunfire.

 

[AGBF]

That was my first thought as well. Everyone in that theater had to be terrified.

Exactly. They were quoted as saying so above. We wait for sound of shots when we hear someone shouting something crazy. That's our America today.

 

[Jambalaya]

Missy, thank you for all that info.

Anti-Semitism just makes me in its sheer stupidity. It makes as much sense as randomly deciding that you're going to hate all people who wear green sweaters, say.

(And I feel the same about all forms of prejudice, just that this thread is about anti-Semitism.)

 

[Jambalaya]

My theory is that much of it is about jealousy combined with pure evil. Never underestimate the fire of hatred behind jealousy. Jealousy is evil and much worse than mere envy, which to me is just a kind of wistful longing.

To explain: If you see the world in terms of which race or creed or faith is/should be more dominant or "better" than another (and, very sadly, there are many people who overlay this kind of framework on their worldview) then your messed-up mind probably sees the Jewish community as a threat. Cultivated, intelligent, hardworking, successful, and enjoy close bonds and a real sense of community. Hitler was incredibly jealous of the Jewish faith and all that its members have, IMO, in addition to being pure evil. And in the same vein, I think insane jealousy is part of the root of Islamic extremism against the West. The extremists try to pretend that they have some kind of organized ideology, but they see how we live in the West, the incredible freedoms and the amazing lives we have compared to some of the places they come from, and they are on fire with jealousy. Very dangerous when combined with people who are pure evil anyway.

This is JMO.

But never underestimate jealousy. IMHO it's close to pure evil. I read about an incident in the news a while ago where one girl was jealous of her friend's looks so she dressed up in a burkha, followed her and threw acid right in her face, causing serious medical problems and major burns - her looks were altered forever. Between committing the crime and being caught, she attended a birthday party for her victim and sent her a card that said "Happy birthday, beautiful" inside it.

I think jealousy can operate on the macro level as well as the micro level.

 

[ksinger]

Well, somewhat tangential, since it's not about anti-semitism, but it seemed to work in this thread. We do have our own delights out here in the middle. Yay Kansas: at least it isn't Oklahoma this time.

First comment: if you have the term "master race" banging around in your head to the degree that it slips into casual conversation and into public meetings where you are a government official speaking to a black woman, you are not only an arrogant tone-deaf jerk, you're a racist.

Second comment: when are these yayhoos going to finally figure out that NO ONE (with a brain) is buying their "I was only joking" crap anymore? Teenaged eye-batting innocence just really does not work on racist old white men.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/ka...missioner-to-resign-after-master-race-comment

In addition to the bare-bones piece above, the NY Times piece adds:

" The idea of a “master race” is prominent in Nazi ideology. The American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas said in a Facebook post that Mr. Klemp’s remarks were “abhorrent.”

But Mark Loughry, the administrator of Leavenworth County, which is just outside Kansas City, said in a statement that Mr. Klemp’s comments were misconstrued and had nothing to do with Nazism.

Mr. Loughry said Mr. Klemp had used the term “master race” several times in the past year to refer to people with gaps in their front teeth, and his comment was meant to include both Ms. Penelton and himself.

Mr. Klemp did not respond to a message on Saturday. Neither Ms. Penelton nor Mr. Loughry could be reached for comment.

Mark Preisinger, the mayor of Leavenworth, said on Saturday that Mr. Klemp’s remark lacked “common decency” and showed he had no filter. But it was hardly the most inappropriate thing Mr. Klemp has said at an official meeting, Mr. Preisinger said.
In November 2017, when the commission was approving a holiday calendar, Mr. Klemp began a monologue during which he lamented that some historical figures were not honored anymore because they once owned slaves. “My great-great-grandfather had a slave,” he noted.

During his speech, Mr. Klemp called Robert E. Lee, the commander of the Confederate Army, a “wonderful part of history” and questioned why Martin Luther King’s Birthday should be recognized when there was not a similar day for George Washington. At that same meeting, he later acknowledged the existence of Presidents’ Day.

Mr. Klemp also said no one would understand Lincoln’s historical importance because the Confederacy did not win the Civil War, “which is all good, I guess.”

During the discussion about the holidays, he looked at a calendar in front of him and said: “I didn’t see Oprah on there. No, she’s not on there as a federal holiday.”

Mr. Preisinger said the “master race” remark was the last straw for many people. “It’s embarrassing,” he said. “It’s a stain on our community.” "

 

[AprilBaby]

My favorite play. How revolting. Trumps daughter is Jewish so it doesn’t make sense. The world is crazy.

 

[Jambalaya]

Ksinger - I saw that story in the press. I just could.not.believe it. What a term.