Daniel Duquenal reports from Venezuela:
There is a theater group trying to stage a revival of Fiddler on the Roof (in Spanish of course). For this they were counting on a local Orchestra, Gran Mariscal de Ayacucho, to provide the music. Last week we learned that one of the bureaucrats in charge of the orchestra called to say that they would not be playing in that musical because they did not want to be associated with anything Jewish.
Sounds crazy, no?
Now of course, it is possible that President Hugo Chavez would be shocked– shocked!– to learn of this decision. Perhaps he’ll even ask that it be reversed so the show can go on.
On the other hand, there is some suspiciously Zionist content in “Fiddler”– namely at the end, when Yente the matchmaker says she is leaving for the Holy Land.
But as Daniel writes:
The drama here is that a lackluster bureaucrat decided on his/her own to call the producers of the show (Jews by the way) to tell them that s/he was sorry but it was better for the orchestra not to participate since it could jeopardize its grants. In one report the producers state that the bureaucrat in question, anonymous to this date, was not antisemitic, he was just being cautious. In my opinion this makes the whole thing even less palatable.
There you have it, chavismo has been successful in creating such an antisemitic atmosphere in its governmental echelons that now bureaucrats think it safer to avoid any association with any Jewish or pro Jewish group. Amen of Israel or Zionists organizations! Why wonder about yet another small grenade thrown a week ago at midnight to a Jewish religious center? It does not matter the pious protests that anyone, including Chavez might utter: the fact of the matter is that they have created the beast and if it is not killed fast it will keep growing and growing.
