A statue in New York City commemorates a former governor who called Jews “the deceitful race.”
An Israeli NGO is calling on New York to remove statues and other symbols honoring Peter Stuyvesant, the Dutch governor of New Amsterdam.
If we’re removing statues of supporters of slavery, what should we do about Stuyvesant, who called Jews “the deceitful race” and banned synagogues?
The Babylonian Talmud counsels that at times of bitterest cold, it is best to say, “Such is the way of the world,” and then “observe eight days of festivity.” One such ideal post-winter solstice festivity for Manhattanites is a January 11 Carnegie Hall recital by America’s sweetheart of song, soprano Renée Fleming, in a program of German Jewish composers of art songs, including Arnold Schoenberg, Alexander Zemlinsky, and the ever-schmaltzy Erich Wolfgang Korngold.