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THE DETROIT Ir_NISH NEWS

Friday, November 28, 1980 31

Is Ban on Music of Anti-Semitic Composer Justified?

There should be as little
merit in loving a woman for
her beauty, as a man for his
of his music in the Jewish generation which still has prosperity, both being
state.
vivid memories of the equally subject to change.
Whether this feeling will Holocaust is another ques-
—Pope
fade with the passing of the tion.

By SOL LIEGBOTT

(Editor's note: Sol Lieg-
bott is the Israeli consul-
- tant to the Time-Life In-
ternational organization.
This article originally
appeared in the
Jerusalem Post.)
In his well-reasoned arti-
cle "Absurd Impasse" (The
Jerusalem Post, Aug. 22)
Harold Fenton once again
raises the apparent incon-
sistency in the fact that the
public performance of
Richard Strauss and
Richard Wagner's music is
taboo in Israel, wheras the
music of other composers
associated with the Nazis
(Carl Orff is but one of
them) is played by Israeli
orchestras without re-
straint.
If anti-Semitism is a valid
reason for banning a com-
poser's works, why confine
the ban to Strauss and
Wagner? Beethoven, too,
was anti-Semitic and de-
clined to have his works
published by Jewish pub-
lishers. Indeed, the argu-
ment may be taken further
and extended to the field of
literature. Among promi-
nent literary figures,
neither Hilair Belloc nor G.
K. Chesterton made any
secret of their distaste for
Jews. Dickens' Fagin and
Shakespeare's Shylock con-
tain all the well-known
anti-Semitic calumnies.
In the first authoritative
biography of one of the
greatest 20th Century
story-tellers, W. Somerset
Maugham, his biographer
writes, in part, "In his work,
Jews are usually crude and
unscrupulous stereotypes in
the tradition of Shylock and
Fagin." In "Lady Habart"
there occurs the line: "Once
upon a time moneylenders
were unwashed Hebrews in
shabby clothes, malodorous,
speaking English with an
abominable accent." In a
1939 Nazi brochure, the
writer uses Maugham's
story "The Alien Corn" to
prove the Nazi thesis that
Jews will remain alien in
any country in which they
live.
Many illustrious names
in music and literature
could be added to those I
have already mentioned.
Yet no one has suggested
that their work be
banned in Israel. Indeed,
our lives would be much
poorer if we were to
proscribe the works of
every musician, com-
poser, writer and artist
whose anti-Semitic proc-
livities have become
known.
Why, then, this tenacious
insistence on banning
Wagner? To answer this, it
is necessary to examine in
greater depth certain as-
pects of Wagner's life and
his attitude towards Jews
and Judaism.
Apart from music,
Wagner composed essays on
race and race theories. In
his writing, as in his music,
Wagner laid the foundation
for the super-race philos-
ophy and played an impor-
tant role in fostering an
ideological anti-Semitic

RICHARD WAGNER

movement in Europe gen-
erally and in Germany in
particular. Less than 50
years later, echoes of
Wagner's thinking were
strongly reflected in Hit-
ler's "Mein Kampf."
The question may well be
asked, "What has music to
do with racialism and Jew-
hatred?" The fact is that
Wagner's writings exuded a
satanic hatred of Jews.
Until the middle of the
last century, when
Wagner made his
entrance, art was rela-
tively free of anti-
Semitism. At the time
when the world of music
and composition
abounded in Jewish-
sounding names, such as
Mendelssoh, Meyerbeer,
Halevy and Offenbach,
Wagner was both poor
and-unknown.

A pamphlet which he
wrote at that time — first
anonymously and later,
after the death of some of his
Jewish contemporaries,
under his own name —
entitled "Judiasm in
Music," became almost re-
quired reading for anti-
Semitic movements in
Europe. When Wagner
emerged from his anonym-
ity and became an interna-
tional figure, all Germany
partook of his anti-Semitic
poison. Wagner was re-
garded as The anti-Jew —
the "Pope" of anti-
Semitism."
About 40 years later,
Wagner' was crowned by
Hitler as the Godfather of
Nazism, appropriately so,
for the writings of Wagner
abound in Nazi doctrine.
One example: "The Jews
should be driven out; they
should find" norefuge here,
no birthright. Their lot
should be more wretched
than Cain. They should
drown in the depths of the
sea and never rise to the
surface."
The ideological anti-
Semitism of Wagner, which
was expressed in "Judaism
in Music," is founded on his
own basic concepts. The Jew
as a foreign race is incapa-
ble of understanding the
soul of Germany. Therefore,
whenever a Jew composes
music the result is a mix-
ture of foreign influences
which contaminate the
sources of the German spirit
and poison the wells of
Teutonic culture. It follows,
therefore, that Germans
must uproot all. Jewish
music and banish it from
German soil.
Much later, in the

1930s, Wagner's doctrine
was realized when, under
the leadership of Richard
Strauss, the chief of
music of the Third Reich,
the orchestras of Ger-
many were made `Juden-
rien,' and many of the
Jewish musicians found
a home in the Israel
Philharmonic. Others
met their death in the
concentration camps.
The compositions of Jews
went up in flames and
Wagner's dream reached ul-
timate fulfillment when the
Nazis smashed the marble
statue of Mendelssohn in
Dusseldorf. Wagner's anti-
Jewish mania extended in
all directions. "The Jews,"
Downtown • 1430 Griswold (Bet. Grand River & Clifford) • Phone 961-8751
he wrote, "are the embodi-
Uptown • Lathrup Village; Southfield at 111/2 Mile • Phone 559-3900
ment of strange, distorted
Big & Tall • Lathrup Village, Southfield at 11 Mile • Phone 569-6930
demons who, in the guise of
bankers and newspaper- rimmigirr
men, suck the blood of our
beautiful German `gods'."
Towards the end of his
days, the opera "Tales of
Hoffman" was presented in
a German theatre. A fire
broke out during the per-
formance and large num-
bers of people, many of them
Jews, lost their lives. A
German journalist spoke to
Wagner about the tragedy
and recorded Wagner's
Tne, rich ground aroma and fresh perked taste
reaction: "When a large
makes Maxim R'the coffee any busy Palbusta
number of people — Jews
would be proud tO serve. Especially with the
and others — are killed
trudel Or. the Honey cake. Or the lox •n:
while attending an opera by
bagels. Or whenever friends and •mishpochen•
the Jew Offenbach, which
suddenly drop in. Maxim, the • 100°,'0 freeze
has no value whatever, I
remain quite indifferent."
dried coffee_ that'll make everyone think you
Last year, the diaries of
! ,..)ok The time to make fresh perked coffee-
Wagner's wife Cosima were
you didn't!'
published for the first time.
They provide ample illus-
tration of Wagner's strong
antipathy to France and of
his anti-Semitism, which
helped mold the thoughts
of Hitler and Nazi Germany
a half century later.
I have discussed only
Wagner's attitude to
Jews, since this is the
basic reason for the
strong feeling against the
performance of his
music. When Zubin
Mehta, the distinguished
musical director of the
Israel Philharmonic Or-
chestra, was interviewed
on the subject on Israel
TV, he described
- Wagner's personal char-
acter in terms which are
almost unprintable.
However it was Mehta's
firm view that Wagner's
ideologies, execrable as
they are, should not com-
pel our orchestras to os-
tracize this undoubtedly
great music from their
reportoire.
There can be no doubt
that Wagner's anti-
semitism was far more
heinous and vehement
than that of many others
and that it was instrumen-
tal in spreading its evil both
07: •
in its own time as well as
influencing Nazi ideology.
Hence the deep-rooted feel-
ing against the performance

A Happy and Joyous
Chanukah
To Our Many Friends
•

osins

IT'S THE COFFEE THAT'LL
MAKE EVERYONE THINK YOU DID
WHEN YOU DIDN'T!

::'

When the ancients said a
work well begun was half
done, they meant to impress
the importance of always
endeavoring to make a good
beginning.
—Polybius

Gf hf f.A tt30 0'

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