Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky

We’re proud to partner with the Jewish Arts Collaborative Boston on JArts Theatreworks Group Presents: You Will Not Play Wagner. The filmed play will be screened on Tuesday, November 16 at 7 p.m. ET / 4 p.m. PT.

Register here.

Is it ok to play the music of a known anti-Semite?

Richard Wagner’s music has been informally banned in Israel on the grounds that the German composer was promoted during the Nazi era as Hitler’s favorite composer.

You Will Not Play Wagner takes place across Boston, New York, and Tel Aviv as we Zoom across the world in a COVID-19 world. Ya’akov, a young Israeli upstart, causes a storm by selecting to perform Wagner in the finals of an international competition for conductors. He comes into conflict with Esther, Holocaust survivor and competition patron who has her own tragic connection with Wagner’s music, and Morris, the competition organizer.

Their arguments push the competition to the brink and set Israeli society on edge. Should Ya’akov play Wagner? Should the politics of his music interfere with the quality of his art? To what extent do we honor the memory of the Holocaust, its survivors and their descendants, without stifling the next generation? And would a Jewish Israeli conducting Wagner be treachery or triumph?

This filmed play was adapted for Zoom by South African playwright Victor Gordon just before he passed away from COVID-19. This film is in his memory.

Register here.

"Why I became the Forward’s Editor-in-Chief"

You are surely a friend of the Forward if you’re reading this. And so it’s with excitement and awe — of all that the Forward is, was, and will be — that I introduce myself to you as the Forward’s newest editor-in-chief.

And what a time to step into the leadership of this storied Jewish institution! For 129 years, the Forward has shaped and told the American Jewish story. I’m stepping in at an intense time for Jews the world over. We urgently need the Forward’s courageous, unflinching journalism — not only as a source of reliable information, but to provide inspiration, healing and hope.

That’s where you come in. Gifts of any size keep the Forward free and accessible to everyone and ensure we have the resources we need to power the Forward at this critical time for American Jews.

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