12 | NOVEMBER 14 • 2024 J
N

A 

Jewish and Israeli music 
event at the Farmington 
Community Library that 
was originally set to take place 
Sunday, Nov. 3 — which was then 
postponed due to negative feedback 
from community members — has 
now been rescheduled for Dec. 1 
after blowback from the Jewish 
community and intervention from 
people in positions of influence. 
The event was the “Best of Jewish 
and Israeli Music with David 
Rodgers.” Rodgers, a 
local Jewish professional 
pianist, was set to feature 
solo piano performances 
while also offering 
historical background 
information and stories, 
musical trivia and a 
Q&A session. 
It was then mysteriously post-
poned on the Monday prior to the 
Sunday event. 
The email the library sent 
out informing people of the 
postponement read as follows: 

“The Library will be postponing 
this event and rescheduling it at a 
later date in the spring of 2025 when 
we are able to provide programming 
that highlights the musical repertoire 
of both the Arab American and 
Jewish American communities 
that we serve. The Library serves 
a diverse community with our 
programming, and our mission is to 
ensure that all community members 
are recognized and served through 
the Library’s collections, services 
and programming. We will keep the 
registration list for this program and 
will reach out to you when we have a 
new date scheduled for the program.”

COMPLAINTS LEAD 
TO POSTPONEMENT 
On Oct. 28, the Monday morning 
prior to the Sunday event, a 
regular email newsletter had gone 
out promoting the event to the 
community. The email newsletters 
are generally how community 
members get exposure to library 
happenings. 

That newsletter was the genesis for 
many complaints the library received 
in the following hours.
Sarah Zitter, the library’s 
marketing and community relations 
director, tells the JN that the library 
received five pieces of negative 
feedback within four hours of the 
newsletter going out. Zitter says none 
of the community members who 
provided that feedback self-identified 
what cultural or ethnic group they 
were a part of. 
Zitter explained the reason for the 
negative feedback. “They felt that us 
holding this program as a standalone 
program, without anything that 
also provided a space to recognize 
the Arab American culture, was the 
library highlighting just one cultural 
group that is a part of a current 
political situation,” she said. 
That feedback prompted the 
library management team to meet 
about this on Monday afternoon. 
During that meeting, the question 
they pondered was whether holding 
the event put the library in a position 

of appearing to publicly support 
one side of a “national political 
conversation that’s related to the 
conflict in the Middle East.”
That was only exacerbated by 
the event being scheduled two days 
before the election. 
Management debated if the library 
could hold the event as scheduled 
and still be perceived as remaining 
an apolitical organization. Their 
conclusion was that they couldn’t.
Because of that, they discussed 
three options to move forward. The 
first option was to continue with 
the event on Nov. 3 as planned, and 
then also work to schedule a concert 
program highlighting the Arab 
American community in the next 
programming season. Zitter explains 
that, in general, the library plans 
programs months ahead of time. 
They decided to not go with that 
option as it would “not allow us to 
still hold the concert this Sunday and 
remain apolitical because of the fact 
that it is right before the election, 
and the culture we’re providing space 

Jewish community comes together to reinstate Jewish and 
Israeli music event after postponement due to public pressure. 
Let the Jewish Music Play

continued on page 14

DANNY SCHWARTZ SENIOR STAFF REPORTER

OUR COMMUNITY

David 
Rodgers

The Farmington 
Community Library

