In the News
The Jewish News (UK) covered B’nai B’rith President Robert B. Spitzer and CEO Daniel S. Mariaschin’s letter to Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw condemning its discriminatory cancellation of a Hanukkah concert—and urging the hall to reverse this bigoted decision immediately. Read more in The Jewish News (UK).
Jewish organizers seek legal action; the hall director’s grandfather signed a 1940 order expelling Jews from the Dutch civil service
An Amsterdam venue hosting the city’s annual Chanukah concert cancelled the event this week in protest over the planned participation of the IDF’s chief cantor, retired Lt. Col. Shai Abramson.
The Royal Concert Hall, or Concertgebouw was scheduled to host the event, organised by the Chanukah Concert Foundation, on December 14th.
In a statement on Sunday, it claimed that it had been long asking for a change to the programme and cancelled the concert, when one was not made: “This decision was made because it was not possible to reach an agreement on an alternative to the performance by the IDF Chief Cantor”, adding: “For The Concertgebouw, it is crucial that the IDF is actively involved in a controversial war and that Abramson is a visible representative of it.”
Cantor Shai Abramson’s website says his performances around the world are done “with the intention of developing and strengthening ties with Jewish communities around the world, and intensifying connections with Israel and with the IDF.”
Jewish community leaders in the Netherlands and officials in Israel have condemned the decision, whose impact has been exacerbated by the revelation by Dutch-Jewish lawyer Oscar Hammerstein that the grandfather of the Concertgebouw’s current director, Simon Reinink, signed the November 1940 order expelling all Dutch-Jewish civil servants under Nazi occupation.
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B’nai B’rith president Robert Spitzer and chief executive Daniel Mariaschin have written to the Royal Concertgebouw condemning the cancellation, writing that they “urge the Concertgebouw to reverse this bigoted decision immediately and allow the celebration to proceed as planned.”