84 Friday, March 25, 1983
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
The Anti-Semitism of German Composer Richard Wagner
By JULIUS CHAJES
in Vienna, Austria. Wagner
immortalized him in his
opera "The Meistersinger"
as Hans Lick, the ridiculous
musical expert. But today
there is no disagreeement
as far as Wagner's music is
concerned. He is considered
a great composer the world
over.
Only a few months ago,
Zubin Mehta, the conduc-
tor of the Israeli
Philharmonic, tried to
perform one of Wagner's
compositions in Tel Aviv,
but had to leave the stage
when shouts and fights
erupted in the au-
ditorium.
Wagner was obsessed
with hatred towards the
Jewish people. This is a
main reason why he became
the favored composer of
Adolf Hitler. Wagner felt
that it was his duty to warn
the German people about
the domination of the Jews
in all phases of the arts.
(Editor's note: Chajes is
conductor of the Center
Symphony Orchestra
and has had more than 70
of his own musical corn-
positions published.)
This year, the entire
musical world is observing
the 100th anniversary of
Richard Wagner's death.
His music is being per-
formed more than ever be-
fore, and in addition, many
articles are being written
not only about Wagner
the composer, but about
Wagner the human being.
The music world was di-
vided into two camps 125
years ago which fought each
other bitterly — on the one
hand, the camp which sup-
ported the descriptive music
of Franz Liszt and Richard
Wagner, and on the other
hand the classical music of
Johannes Brahms.
One of the fiercest adver-
saries of Wagner was
Hanslick, the most impor- In his essay, "Judaism in
tant music critic of the time Music," Wagner wrote,
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has agreed to refer persons tute of Gerontology at the
when necessary to..: Mrs. University of Michigan.
r
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"The results of Jewish at-
tempts at artistic creation
must necessarily possess
the qualities of coldness, in-
difference, triviality and
absurdity."
Wagner was not satisfied
in criticizing Jewish
creativity in general, but
devoted the last chapter to
minimizing the great,
genius of Mendelssohn,
Meyerbeer, Heine and
Boerne. All this in spite of
the fact that all four men
underwent baptism and be-
came Christians!
(Let us not forget that
until Hitler came to
power, a baptized Jew
was fully accepted and
could reach the highest
positions in government
and the church. Heine
called baptism, "A
passport to society.")
To his patron, King Lud-
wig II, Wagner wrote, "The
Jewish race is the born
enemy of humanity and all
that is noble in it: it is cer-
tain that we Germans will
go under before them, and
perhaps I am the last Ger-
man who knows how to
stand up as an art-loving
man against Judaism that
is already getting control of
everything."
The anti-Semitic mayor
of Vienna, Dr. Karl Lueger,
when reprimanded for
favoring an "important"
Jew answered, "Who is a
Jew, I decide!" This applies
to Wagner as well. Herman
Levi, the son of a rabbi and a
fine conductor in his own
right, was one of Wagner's
greatest admirers. Wagner
chose him as the conductor
for the premier performance
of the "Parsifal!"
The great German
philosopher Friedrich
Nietzsche who at first was
one of Wagner's staunch
supporters,' turned against
Wagner, both as a composer
and as a person. He called
Wagner "an actor" and not a
composer. In answer to
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JULIUS CHAJES
Wagner's
essay
on
"Judaism in Music,"
Nietzsche wrote an essay on
"The People of Israel."
To quote Nietzsche,
"Where shall an outlet be
found for this abundant
wealth of great im-
pressions accumulated
during such an extended
period and representing
Jewish history for every
Jewish family, this
wealth of passion, vir-
tues, resolutions, resig-
nations, struggles and
conquests of all kinds —
where can it find an out-
let but in great intellec-
tual men and works!"
Gideon Hausner, the pro-
secutor of Eichmann, wrote
recently about the con-
troversy over playing
Wagner in Israel. He quoted
an article which Wagner
wrote for the Bayreuther
Blaetter. "See how it suc-
ceeded in Kiev," he wrote,
concerning the murder of
Jews. "To drive the Jews out
in the hope that they would
find no shelter anywhere
and would thus ultimately
disappear from the face of
the earth!"
In connection with
Wagner's anti-Semitism, it
is interesting to note that
two letters were recently
found which make it appar-
ent that Wagner's mother
had a love affair with Lud-
wig Geyer, a Jewish actor,
many months before
Wagner was born. Wagner's
father was sick for a long
time, and Geyer began to
support the impoverished
Wagner family. He moved
in as a roomer, and shortly
after Wagner's father died,
Gayer married Wagner's
mother.
Since early childhood,
Wagner was called "Jew
Boy" by fellow students.
Later in life, he had to
endure remarks about
being the son of a Jew, not
only from Heinrich Heine,
but from many others who
wanted to hurt him.
Whatever the reason
for his anti-Semitism, we
know that Hitler learned
a lesson on Judaism from
Richard Wagner, and
eventually Hitler's lesson
led to the extermination
of six million Jews. Do
we, as Jews, have the
right to forget it?
We, the lucky survivors,
can hear even greater com-
posers than Wagner, to
mention just a few: Beeth-
oven, Bach, Mozart, Haydn
and others. The Six Million
can not hear any one of
these — don't we owe them
something?
Readers Forum
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Judea-Samaria vs West Bank
Editor, The Jewish News:
I draw your attention to
falsified reports carried in
your paper. In your March
11 issue a headline reads:
"Arens Says Law And Order
Will Be Preserved On WB."
The lead paragraph of the
story that follows says: "De-
fense Minister Moshe Arens
told the Knesset on Tuesday
that Israeli security forces
have the means to preserve
law and order on the West
Bank . ."
Your readers are being
deceived. Moshe Arens did
not say "West Bank" when
he spoke to the Knesset. He
said "Judea and Samaria."
Time and time again The
Jewish News has carried
stories of Israel government
officials that are written so
it is made to appear that
those officials used Jordan's
name, "West Bank," rather
than our JeWish name for
the area, Judea-Samaria,
which the Israelis actually
used.
Using the name "West
Bank" „legitimizes Jor-
dan's 19-year occupation
of the area which in-
cludes Jerusalem. It
letigimizes Jordan's kil-
ling nearly all the Jews of
the farms and villages in
the Judean hills when
they seized the area. It
legitimizes Jordan driv-
ing out all the Jewish
survivors from
Jerusalem and the rest of
the area.
It legitimizes Jordan for-
bidding any Jews from
entering and worshipping
at their Holy Places. It
legitimizes Jordan's foul
acts of desecration against
places holy to the Jewish
people and their efforts to
destroy every trace of
Jerusalem's ancient Jewish
history. It legitimizes the
971 murder-and-sabotage
missions carried out from
that area and Gaza during
Jordan's 19-year occupation
that resulted in 521 Israelis
killed, 1,487 wounded be-
sides the heavy property
damage.
Judea and Samaria was
the heart of the Jewish Bi-
blical homeland where our
prophets walked in- the hills
and where our kings and
scholars lived — not in Tel
Aviv. The British Mandate,
under the auspices of the
League of Nations, included
Judea and Samaria in the
Jewish National Home and
encouraged Jewish settle-
ment in the land. The
preamble of the League of
Nations Mandate instru-
ment cites "the historic
connection of the Jewish
people" as one of the
"grounds for reconstituting
their national existence in
that country."
The state of Israel was
created in the Land of Israel
because of 4,000 years of
Jewish history. If Israel has
no historic claim to Judea
and Samaria, then it has no
legitimate claim to Tel
Aviv, Haifa and Jerusalem.
The State Department
never recognized Jor-
dan's 19-year occupati-
ion, yet they insist on
using the name Jordan
gave the area rather than
the Jewish name that was
previously in common
use. Erasing from the
map and from the minds
of the public the Jewish
connection to that land
helps the State Depart-
ment's effort to force Is-
rael back to the 1949
armistice lines and give
that territory to King
Hussein and Arafat.
- I realize there are some
American Jews that are de-
liberately using the Arab
nomenclature because they
want their fellow Jews to
accept Reagan's Middle
East proposals. They be-
lieve Israel can achieve
peace by giving up Jewish
rights to live in Judea-
Samaria and Jerusalem,
the heart of Eretz Yisrael.
They think Israel is so pow-
erful and secure that it has
nothing to fear if it yields to
the Arab demands.
They think they know
what's best and are willing
to force a policy on Israel
that affects the security of
its people. If Israel caves in
under pressure of Reagan's
Administration and those
American Jews and a while •
later the inevitable bloody
attack follows on the
weakened Israel, what will
they say: "Oh, I am so
sorry'?
Most of the American
media follow the guidance
of the State Department
and their news reports from
Israel almost always substi-
tutes the term West Bank
for the Judea-Samaria used
by Israel's leaders. If the
Jewish community press
does the same, how can one
fault them?
Hymie Cutler
Educate your children to
self-control, to the habit of
holding passion and prej-
udice and evil tendencies
subject to an upright and
reasoning will, and you
have done much to abolish
misery from their future
lives ' and crimes from
society.
d,",