Photo Credit: JCCWatch.org
Former NYC mayor Rudy Giuliani keynote speaker at Klinghoffer opera protest 10/20/14, outside Metropolitan Opera at Lincoln Center

The second in a series of blockbuster protests against the Metropolitan Opera will take place Monday evening, Oct. 20.

The Met is being protested for staging an opera which seeks to humanize the Palestinian Arab terrorist thugs who hijacked an Italian cruise liner and singled out an elderly disabled Jewish man, Leon Klinghoffer, whom they shot and threw overboard to drown. The name of the opera is ‘The Death of Klinghoffer.’

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Before the protest on Monday there will be a press conference, starting at 5:00 p.m., at which former New York City Mayor Rudy Guliani will be the keynote speaker.

Giuliani, of course, is the American official who has twice stared down evil and refused to sacrifice his principles to political correctness or even the dangling of millions of dollars.

In 1995 Giuliani expelled Yasir Arafat from a concert for world leaders at Lincoln Center in 1995, saying he could never forgive Arafat’s acts of terror.

“I would not invite Yasir Arafat to anything, anywhere, anytime, anyplace,” Giuliani said at the time. “The U.N. is one thing, the peace process is another thing. When we’re having a party and a celebration, I would rather not have someone who had been implicated in the murder of Americans.”

In the wake of the Islamist terrorist attacks on America on September 11, 2001, Giuliani rebuffed Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal who suggested that the attacks were caused by U.S. policies in the Middle East, and that the U.S. should “adopt a more balanced stand toward the Palestinian cause.” The prince offered $10 million towards disaster relief in the aftermath of the attack on New  York’s Twin Towers.

Giuliani, then the mayor of New York, responded to the Saudi prince:

There is no moral equivalent for this act. There is no justification for it,” Guliani responded, “And one of the reasons I think this happened is because people were engaged in moral equivalency in not understanding the difference between liberal democracies like the United States, like Israel, and terrorist states and those who condone terrorism. So I think not only are those statements wrong, they’re part of the problem.

And with that, Giuliani refused the offer of the Saudi prince’s $10 million.

That is the stuff of which the Stop the Terror Opera coalition is made.

In addition to Giuliani, former New York State Governor David Paterson (D), New York Congressman Peter King (R)(NY-2), criminal defense attorney Ben Brafman, Queens Borough President Melinda Katz  (D), Rabbi Joseph Potasnik, Jewish war veterans and terror victims will lend their presence and support to the press conference and protest.

Prior to the press conference and protest, Rabbi Avi Weiss and a group of rabbinical leaders will hold a prayer vigil, beginning at 12:00 noon, at Lincoln Center Plaza at Broadway and 65th Street in memory of Leon Klinghoffer’s soul. It is an effort to assuage the pain and tribulation to Klinghoffer’s soul and his memory caused by the glorification of his terrorist murderers in the Klinghoffer opera.

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In the run-up to this latest protest which will be held on the evening the Klinghoffer opera opens at the Metropolitan Opera, an interesting glimpse into the dark soul of the opera’s librettist, Alice Goodman, was provided by a remark she made on social media.

JCCWatch, a small activist organization based in New York and run by New York businessman Richard Allen tweeted out a provocative message to Goodman, asking her, “an apostate” (Goodman was born a Jew but converted to Christianity and is now an Anglican chaplain) why she thinks a dead Jew is art.

Goodman responded, revealing her conflation of anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism and wrapping it in a Jewish conspiracy, all in fewer than 140 characters!

She claimed that JCCWatch is an entity controlled by Israel to police people’s views and to attack any who do not conform to the Jewish State’s positions. It appears Goodman confuses Israel with ISIS. Maybe confirmation of that will be found in the next libretto she writes when she teams up again with her fellow Klinghoffer desecrators John Adams and Peter Gelb.

Tweet from Alice Goodman, librettist for ‘Death of Klinghoffer’ opera, confirming her Zionist conspiracy beliefs and anti-Semitism.
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Lori Lowenthal Marcus
Lori Lowenthal Marcus is a contributor to the JewishPress.com. A graduate of Harvard Law School, she previously practiced First Amendment law and taught in Philadelphia-area graduate and law schools. You can reach her by email: Lori@JewishPressOnline.com

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92 COMMENTS

  2. The revealing that Goodman is an Anglican Chaplain is quite disturbing to me since I am Anglican and a very strong supporter of Israel. If further indications arises which indicate he feelings are wide spread within the Anglican Church I will leave it like I did the Episcopal Church when it turned too Socialist/progressive and made an openly homosexual a bishop.
    Fred Ingley

  15. What is next? The abandonment of the Ring Cycle simply it is believed that Hitler enjoyed the music of Richard Wagner? Music and opera are a special language and should be enjoyed by all to listen and see. If you do not like what you see or hear, just don’t attend.

  16. Music and opera like film can be propaganda. This is the latter. The Opera’s librettist has recently acknowledged her anti-Israel credentials (see above). I suppose you view the Triumph of the Will as “special language” to be “enjoyed by all to listen and see” and not Nazi propaganda.

  17. For the eternal shame of both Mr. Adams and the opera they decided to become haters of Jews and they surely use the murder of an innocent Jewish man to gain fame and fortune. I hope no one attends their performances.

  18. To vilify, rather than answer a straight question shows nothing more than the paucity of thought of those who hate. Ms. Goodman, is incapable of giving an intelligent or even a half baked answer that would show even a smidgeon of grey matter being used. She converted from Judaism and to justify herself to herself, she finds it necessary to hate, hate, hate while justifying murder. All that has achieved nothing than to show how skewed, how off-kelter her moral compass has become.

    Continue talking Alice, show the world, who and what you've become. The more you open your mouth (whether on social media, or in actual speech), the more you expose your own lack of morality, the more you expose your own lack of humanity, the more you expose your own dark, miserable soul! Bravo, bravissimo Alice!!!!

  19. I do not believe that using a real life act of hate is Art. To take a real life tragedy showing hatred of Jews and taking the life of a disabled Jewish man is “art”. Only someone with no imagination and no inspiration can call using real events and a real tragedy as Art. Why didn’t he make up some story? why did he have to use this man’s horrendous fate to make a name for himself? because he has no talent and just wanted to promote himself. Obviously if he had a good talent and imagination he would not have to use real events. Despicable both, Adams and the Opera.

  21. michael.sherman52 Triumph of the Will if seen properly by the masses back in the 1930’s would have shown the world what was in store for them by the Nazis and Adolf Hitler. By burying your head in the sand, one would never know what was to come. You obviously believe that theory. Certainly Triumph of the Will was propaganda, but it was educational as well.

  23. The Ring Cycle wasn’t about killing disabled Jews, so the comparison doesn’t work. The audience doesn’t define a work of art; the artist does. If Joseph Goebbels had written The Ring Cycle as an opera glorifying the killing of Jews, it would deserve to be burned as trash no matter who the audience was. The artist should define the work of art, not the audience.

  27. The revealing that Goodman is an Anglican Chaplain is quite disturbing to me since I am Anglican and a very strong supporter of Israel. If further indications arises which indicate he feelings are wide spread within the Anglican Church I will leave it like I did the Episcopal Church when it turned too Socialist/progressive and made an openly homosexual a bishop.
    Fred Ingley

  29. Guilliani is in the pantheon of the greats like Fiorello Laguardia. his magnificent stewardship during and after 9/11 enabled new yorkers to bear what would have been unbearable without him as Mayor. like Laguardia he had no qualms to sweeping the city clean of savage criminal beasts so that new yorkers were able to exit what had become, in david dinkins' grotesque mayoral administration, our apartment prisons.

  31. I am a Jewish white boy. the politicians, gov , news, banks, religions are all playing us. pisses me off. this country/ government has betrayed me and my way of life economicly with taxes, racially, legally with laws to victimize me and my families freedoms that do not exist anymore. Regulatory with licences and permits ect… I’m done with this whole thing . I quit paying taxes. I work and pay my expenses and that is it. I own nothing but dirty boots and a welding helmet for the government to steal. I have maybe 10 years of life left in me and then I’m done. I hope it all collapses and is no more economicly or through disease or a war. I’m not an activist but I would sit and laugh as it collapses. I may suffer from whatever but I would love to watch too big to fail and the Obama insult totally collapse. I really do not care. I will survive or not.

  32. also. I live in Alaska and have nothing in common with the lower 48 states. Alaska does not need the USA. we are floating on oil, natural gas, water, gold , minerals, tourism, lumber, fish, good people. Alaska could separate and do s whole lot better by itself. either way at my age I dont care. the USA government has destroyed itself. I will sit back and watch.

  44. What is next? The abandonment of the Ring Cycle simply it is believed that Hitler enjoyed the music of Richard Wagner? Music and opera are a special language and should be enjoyed by all to listen and see. If you do not like what you see or hear, just don't attend.

  45. Lets go back to the beginning … to the Metropolitan Opera… How could the City of New York stand with this organization and not block this “Opera” if only with words…? And where are the hundreds of thousands of Jews in New York ? Where are their words ? Another BLACK mark on the Mayor ?

  47. Music and opera like film can be propaganda. This is the latter. The Opera's librettist has recently acknowledged her anti-Israel credentials (see above). I suppose you view the Triumph of the Will as "special language" to be "enjoyed by all to listen and see" and not Nazi propaganda.

  49. I do not believe that using a real life act of hate is Art. To take a real life tragedy showing hatred of Jews and taking the life of a disabled Jewish man is "art". Only someone with no imagination and no inspiration can call using real events and a real tragedy as Art. Why didn't he make up some story? why did he have to use this man's horrendous fate to make a name for himself? because he has no talent and just wanted to promote himself. Obviously if he had a good talent and imagination he would not have to use real events. Despicable both, Adams and the Opera.

  51. michael.sherman52 Triumph of the Will if seen properly by the masses back in the 1930's would have shown the world what was in store for them by the Nazis and Adolf Hitler. By burying your head in the sand, one would never know what was to come. You obviously believe that theory. Certainly Triumph of the Will was propaganda, but it was educational as well.

  59. Lets go back to the beginning … to the Metropolitan Opera… How could the City of New York stand with this organization and not block this "Opera" if only with words…? And where are the hundreds of thousands of Jews in New York ? Where are their words ? Another BLACK mark on the Mayor ?

  61. The Americans involved in theatre, should find all the names of all those who are taking part in that terrorist opera and warn them that they will never ever again take part in any production, that their careers are over. now they can start to scrub the floors of the opera house.

  62. what a pity. Giuliani would have been the very best POTUS of all time.
    He is a man who will never take a bribe. Never destroy the great country of America.
    He is the very greatest politician of all time.
    Hopefully, he will stand for the presidency this time.

  63. It is a child’s mistake to project early experiences of being helpless before one’s parents’ views of the world onto one’s adult life. There have been leaders of groups and countries who did and are doing this with horrifying results. There is nothing so damaging in the world as a child who refuses to grow up.

  64. As a long-time musician I have experienced the paralysis artists have before staged “ART”. Once it’s on stage it feels inconceivable to treat a work as though it could be wrong enough to stop production. Art can heal but art is very dangerous.

  65. After 9/11, when he refused the "bribe" from that Saudi prince. I wrote to him and thanked him for what he did.
    What really impressed me, was that he replied to thank me for my good wishes.

    How many other top politicians would find the time to reply and still say "Thank you"?
    Giuliani must be the most honest, decent politician of all time in the USA and the world.

    I am sure that after having experienced this Muslim in the WH, he would get the vote of most Americans.
    What a great president he would make
    WAKE UP AMERICA. PUT THE RIGHT MAN INTO THE WH

  67. I am no longer in the area or I would meet with you. I will be at the gathering of the Alabama-Israel Task Force being held in Huntsville AL on October 26 to show support for Israel.

  69. It is a child's mistake to project early experiences of being helpless before one's parents' views of the world onto one's adult life. There have been leaders of groups and countries who did and are doing this with horrifying results. There is nothing so damaging in the world as a child who refuses to grow up.

  74. To vilify, rather than answer a straight question shows nothing more than the paucity of thought of those who hate. Ms. Goodman, is incapable of giving an intelligent or even a half baked one that would show even a smidgen of even a particle of grey matter being used. She converted from Judaism but to justify herself – to herself – she finds it necessary to hate, hate, hate those she originated from, all the while humanizing outright, vicious murder and utter cowardice. She achieved nothing more than to highlight how skewed, how off-kelter, her moral compass has become.

    Pray, tell, Alice: Where is the glory in the cold blooded murder of a crippled, elderly man, a human being whose only crime consisted in being a Jew?!?!? I am waiting for an intelligent answer IF you are truly capable of talking without any verbal abuse. Are you capable, are you honest enough, do you have the moral and intellectual integrity, to give a straight, answer without spewing venom, without name calling?!?!? ARE YOU CAPABLE?!?!?!?!?!? Frankly, I doubt it…

    Somehow Alice, dearest, I know in my gut thatyou are capable of honesty and I doubt you are capable of reasoned thought. Your hatred has poisoned your abilities for truth, so… continue talking Alice, show the world, who and what you’ve become. The more you open your mouth (whether on social media, or in actual speech), the more you expose your own lack of morality, the more you expose your own lack of humanity, the more you expose your own dark, miserable soul! Bravo, bravissimo Alice!! KEEP IT UP!!!!!!

  76. True Christians such as those gathered in CUFI, stand for Israel. Goodman does not represent the spirit of committed Christians. Thank you Mr. Giuliani for standing for what is right. May God bless you.

  77. True Christians such as those gathered in CUFI, stand for Israel. Goodman does not represent the spirit of committed Christians. Thank you Mr. Giuliani for standing for what is right. May God bless you.

  78. I read in some art blog that it was a black day for the world of art if we must stifle artistic expression because of some trivial Jewish sensibility consideration or other. And I think it is a black day in the world of artistic expression if artists are so bankrupt and so heartless that they need inspiration from terrorists throwing a cripple overboard, Jewish or other, to create art of any kind. When racism raises its ugly head, it’s always in the most sophisticated circles. When is Mr Adams composing an Uncle Tom’s Cabin Opera? a 9/11 opera? a Holocaust Opera? Think of all the notoriety and all the adoring fans he could get! Imagine we could go back to pre-nazi Germany congenial days? And imagine some people – so many more than we thought possible – actually look forward to that! If it doesn’t send a shudder through your spine, it’s because you likely don’t understand yet that Jews are just the launching pad, and you will be next! It is just as the great Joan Sutherland said in this thread: Art can be a very dangerous place.

  79. I read in some art blog that it was a black day for the world of art if we must stifle artistic expression because of some trivial Jewish sensibility consideration or other. And I think it is a black day in the world of artistic expression if artists are so bankrupt and so heartless that they need inspiration from terrorists throwing a cripple overboard, Jewish or other, to create art of any kind. When racism raises its ugly head, it's always in the most sophisticated circles. When is Mr Adams composing an Uncle Tom's Cabin Opera? a 9/11 opera? a Holocaust Opera? Think of all the notoriety and all the adoring fans he could get! Imagine we could go back to pre-nazi Germany congenial days? And imagine some people – so many more than we thought possible – actually look forward to that! If it doesn't send a shudder through your spine, it's because you likely don't understand yet that Jews are just the launching pad, and you will be next! It is just as the great Joan Sutherland said in this thread: Art can be a very dangerous place.

  80. Went to Law School with Rabbi Potasnik (he BLS 86 me 85) and worked for the Guliani Admin. I admire both very much. Have any of you who live in the NY Tri State area and get Shalom TV seen the program they had on the hate spewed in this opera and its lack of quality? Watch it. If you can’t get to Shalom TV, try the Jewish Broadcasting Network or Rabbi Mark Golub or Commentary Magazine. I live in the Jewish diaspora known as NYC, so we get Shalom TV (channel 138 on my cable provider). But those of you outside a large Jewish population area will not know what I am talking about. Its part of my basic cable package. Its an important program and very intellectual.

  82. Went to Law School with Rabbi Potasnik (he BLS 86 me 85) and worked for the Guliani Admin. I admire both very much. Have any of you who live in the NY Tri State area and get Shalom TV seen the program they had on the hate spewed in this opera and its lack of quality? Watch it. If you can't get to Shalom TV, try the Jewish Broadcasting Network or Rabbi Mark Golub or Commentary Magazine. I live in the Jewish diaspora known as NYC, so we get Shalom TV (channel 138 on my cable provider). But those of you outside a large Jewish population area will not know what I am talking about. Its part of my basic cable package. Its an important program and very intellectual.

  84. Susana Moskowitz That’s right. This opera is garbage. The standing ovation it received last night from the half that didn’t walk out was not because of its artistic value Gd Forbid, but because it furthered a racist agenda. This is our reality. It concerns ALL of us entire spectrum.

  85. I have to add that the Met Opera is suppose to be an institution that maintains High Art–this opera is not, it's propaganda art; and if we do not see it and label it as so is a road to great catastrophe. I feel very sorry for the Klinghoffer family members (that are still alive), knowing that they have suffered so much for their losses; and now to have to relive this propaganda/twisted version of what actually happened [that's trotted out ever so often–why it is I do not know]; this is in such a low blow—so sorry for them, i wish I could single handedly shut this crap down.

  88. Susana Moskowitz That's right. This opera is garbage. The standing ovation it received last night from the half that didn't walk out was not because of its artistic value Gd Forbid, but because it furthered a racist agenda. This is our reality. It concerns ALL of us entire spectrum.

  89. From reading Gelb’s comments, it seems he misses the main point of why it’s so offensive…it’s HIS belief apparently, that this opera portrays the true sentiments of the other side that we “should listen to”. That “true sentiment” doesn’t apparently delve into Qu’ranic sharia beliefs and qu’ranic beliefs in achieving paradise by eradicating Jews (refer to the Hamas Mandate, the Islamic Brotherhood Mandate of 1928 that precedes it, the Wahabbist and sharia law that the Sunnis ascribe to throughout much of the rest of the Middle East and World (you can listen to ISIS members rant away about Jews and democracies in general on youtube any day of the week) and you get the picture as far as nontolerance of Jews being alive at all is concerned, and it isn’t about land, it comes from the direct language of their prophet…the 99.9 percent reason these people kill Jews and are terrorists) it’s the assertion the Palestinian people, people whose ancestors mostly came as migrant workers to Palestine between the 19th and early twentieth century from Egypt to work for absentee landowners by the way (yes you can raise an eyebrow as to WHERE most of their real homelands originally were), are the victims of the Jews making aliyah (the fact that a million Jews whose ancesters had lived hundreds of years longer in the West Bank and Middle East had to run for their lives to Israel in 1948 is beside the fact, nor that that number is many times the number of Arab people that left Israel in 1948.) Meanwhile, the religious, cultural exhortations to kill the jews isn’t touched upon…this approach that justifies this terrorism and asserts THIS is the justification for Klinghoffer’s murder and the continuing rampaging to destroy Israel throughout the Middle East, IS offensive and shows an ignorance either deliberately or to create a dramatic base that has nothing to do with the jew-killing demanded in these cultures and the reasoning to murder other victims ..that IS reprehensible…people walk out of this opera with a false sentimental reasoning for the motives of these murderers, they’ve been fed the same old propaganda over “homeland” issues to justify these murders that the audience then think are true after all because Gelb and the Met say it is so is just the basis of spreading anti-semitism that an opera not purposely meant to be anti-semitic achieves.

  90. From reading Gelb's comments, it seems he misses the main point of why it's so offensive…it's HIS belief apparently, that this opera portrays the true sentiments of the other side that we "should listen to"…that "true sentiment" doesn't apparently delve into Qu'ranic sharia beliefs and qu'ranic beliefs in achieving paradise by eradicating Jews, it's the assertion the Palestinian people, people whose ancestors mostly came as migrant workers to Palestine between the 19th and early twentieth century from Egypt to work for absentee landowners by the way, are the victims of the Jews making aliyah. Meanwhile, the religious, cultural exhortations to kill the jews isn't touched upon…this approach that justifies this terrorism and asserts THIS is the justification for Klinghoffer's murder and the continuing rampaging to destroy Israel throughout the Middle East, IS offensive and shows an ignorance either deliberately or to create a dramatic base that has nothing to do with the jew-killing demanded in the culture of these Sunni Wahabbist strict sharia cultures that was the cause of Klinghoffer's death and other victims of this theology…that IS reprehensible…people walk out of this opera with a false sentimental reasoning for the motives of these murderers that they think is true because Gelb and the Met say it is so is just the basis of spreading anti-semitism that an opera not purposely meant to be anti-semitic achieves.

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