Published: 15 December 2020
Last updated: 4 March 2024
NIRIT SOMMERFELD’S MUSICAL SHOW has been touring Germany for years. Backed up by her klezmer band, Sommerfeld performs texts and songs, in both German and Yiddish, about Kristallnacht, yearnings for Israel and such things as Hanukkah in the Diaspora.
For years, the 59-year-old singer, who was born in Israel and grew up in Germany, was the darling of the Jewish community in Munich, where she lives.
Two years ago, however, when Sommerfeld submitted a standard request for public funding for her show, she encountered hemming and hawing on the part of the cordial clerks in Munich’s cultural department, and delays in the handling of her request.
“In the end they said, ‘Would you perhaps be willing for us to receive the text of the work beforehand? Maybe it will be possible to make changes here and there.’”
Sommerfeld was shocked. “Excuse me? Do you want to censor me?” she shot back. She didn’t get the funding.
Last year, she rented a club for an event marking the band’s 20th anniversary. The club’s owner sent her a formal letter in which she was called upon “to confirm in writing that no anti-Semitic content will be given expression within the framework of the performance” – without which the club would be compelled to cancel the show.
Sommerfeld fired off a strongly-worded reply. “For 10 years, we have been appearing with a program at whose centre is the story of my grandfather, who was murdered in a concentration camp.”
The explanation for both of these events can be traced back to a single root: Sommerfeld’s activism against the Israeli occupation in the territories and her critical, very public remarks about Israel, which have long provoked the wrath of the Munich Jewish community.
FULL STORY In Germany, a witch hunt is raging against critics of Israel; cultural leaders have had enough (Haaretz)
Photo: Leaders of German cultural institutions spoke out against the dangers they see in the Bundestag resolution at a press conference on December 10 (Itay Mashiach)
