How this Israeli play is offending the ultra-Orthodox
The ultra-Orthodox argue that the restaging of the play "Fleischer" distorts the reality of improving relations between the ultra-Orthodox and secular communities.
In recent weeks, a play named “Fleischer,” written by Yigal Even-Or, is once again on stage, this time at Israel's national theater Habima. The revived production tells the story of the Fleischers, a couple living in a well-established secular neighborhood where new buildings are going up and ultra-Orthodox occupants are moving in. The ultra-Orthodox are depicted in the play as lusting for control, greedy and evil. The Rabbinate kosher certification granted to the local butchery owned by the Fleischers does not seem to satisfy the newly arrived residents. They aim to take over the neighborhood and tyrannize the veteran inhabitants, eventually driving them out.
The play was first staged in 1993 at the Cameri Theater in Tel Aviv and caused a great uproar at the time, both in the ultra-Orthodox sector and among the public at large. It was condemned back then as an anti-Semitic play. Its recent revival has given rise to feelings of anger and hurt in the ultra-Orthodox community, and it has enraged many across the country. The public uproar did not escape the Knesset. Knesset members Yigal Guetta (ultra-Orthodox Shas Party) and Ksenia Svetlova (center-left Zionist Camp) appealed to Minister of Culture and Sport Miri Regev, calling on her to stop government funding for the production. They charged that the play contains "anti-Semitic texts and incites against the ultra-Orthodox in a manner befitting the propaganda machine of dark regimes in dark times." Regev rejected their appeal, arguing that she is barred from interfering in the content dealt with by the theater, as the issue at stake is its "freedom of speech" — this, contrary to her position in other cases, where she did not hesitate to censure artistic content.
