Archive
StandWithUs praises UCI decision to suspend Muslim Student Union
LOS ANGELES (Press Release)—StandWithUs, the international Israel education organization, welcomes UC Irvine’s (UCI) decision to take disciplinary action against Irvine’s Muslim Student Union (MSU), an organization that repeatedly crossed red lines to foment hostility against Israel and intimidate its supporters on campus.
The MSU had claimed that its right to free speech included the right to deny free speech to others, such as Israel’s Ambassador Michael Oren. Hopefully, UCI’s action will help restore civil, responsible debate and free speech on the divisive Arab-Israel issue. Pro-Israel students should now feel safer, and know that their voices can be heard freely on campus. “I hope other campuses that face similar problems will follow UCI’s lead,” said Roz Rothstein, CEO of StandWithUs (SWU). www.standwithus.com
On MOnday, UCI recommended that the MSU be suspended for the upcoming school year and prevented from organizing any events, be placed on disciplinary probation the following year, and complete 50 hours of community service as an organization. The MSU was censured for its premeditated, organized disruption of Israel’s Ambassador Michael Oren’s February 8 speech on campus and for dishonesty to UCI authorities. MSU members denied they had pre-planned the disruption despite clear evidence of their careful planning. Eleven students were arrested, eight of whom were UCI MSU members, including the president of the organization. The MSU plans to appeal the decision and severity of the punishment to Rameen Talesh, UCI Dean of Students.
“Fortunately, SWU had our videographer filming Ambassador Oren’s talk, capturing details that clearly showed the disruption was orchestrated and that the shouting students were reading from prepared notes. The videographer also followed the MSU members out of the auditorium and recorded one of their leaders congratulating the group for their effort to shut down Ambassador Oren and then telling members where to go to ‘debrief’ following the event. This was very incriminating,” said Rothstein.
StandWithUs brought widespread attention to the event by immediately posting the video on YouTube, where it got over 700,000 viewers in just days. (The video can be seen at www.youtube.com/watch?v=7w96UR79TBw.)
UCI notified the MSU about its decision on May 27. Just two weeks earlier, during the MSU’s annual anti-Israel week, Rothstein had the opportunity to publicly question a frequent MSU guest, Abdel Malik Ali. In answer to her questions, he admitted on camera that he supports Hamas and Hezbollah, believes that MSU members should not even speak with pro-Israel students because “they are the new Nazis,” and also said he advocates “jihad on campus.” Once again, SWU’ photographer filmed the event and posted it immediately on YouTube, where this video quickly received thousands of hits. (The video is still available at www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLvfX_SGcAA.) UCI’s Chancellor Drake quickly issued a statement condemning the “offensive remarks supporting terrorism.
While some MSU supporters have already criticized the UCI decision, claiming it is “draconian” and violates the MSU members’ free speech, StandWithUs points out that the decision actually reinforces the right to free speech by ensuring that invited speakers cannot be shouted down and silenced.
“Unfortunately, UCI has become known as one of America’s most anti-Israel campuses. Israel has regularly been demonized—not just criticized—by the MSU. Often, their events crossed the line into thinly veiled anti-Semitism. We certainly hope that the administration’s action will begin to turn things around at UCI so that UCI can become a model for other campuses to follow. Our universities must set standards for discussing even the most difficult issues responsibly, and they must ensure that all voices can be heard, including those of Israeli diplomats like Ambassador Oren,” said Dr. Roberta Seid.
“We can’t know the details of UCI’s deliberations, but I hope that the video showing Malik professing support for terrorist groups helped them see the extremism that pro-Israel students face and how much MSU speakers violate basic tenets of university life and standards of conduct by denying the free speech of others,” said Rothstein.
StandWithUs, which supports and empowers pro-Israel students around the world to counter anti-Israel extremism, has been working with UCI’s pro-Israel students, faculty, and administration since 2001, when the MSU organized its initial anti-Israel event. The annual event coincides with Israel’s Independence Day. Each year, the MSU crossed more red lines, according to StandWithUs. “When the administration reprimanded them for specific offenses, they complied but simply came up with other offensive actions. Many organizations, including SWU, have been calling on the UCI administration for years to take some firm steps to stop this extremism, and are glad they finally have.” explained Rothstein.
This year, over 60 UCI faculty members, including Dr. Roberta Seid, who is also the education/research director of StandWithUs, signed and published a letter protesting the extremism and anti-Semitic elements of the annual MSU event. Dr. Seid spoke before the University of California Board of Regents on May 20 and distributed the letter along with other SWU materials and a petition signed by 700 University of California Jewish students urging the Regents to take steps to set up clear guidelines that would help stop this wave of anti-Israel, anti-Jewish agitation and feelings of intimidation on University of California campuses. It is unclear what role the Regents played in UCI’s decision the following week to discipline the MSU.
*
Preceding provided by StandWithUs
Israeli violinist and pianist to perform together June 17 in Carlsbad
Eileen Wingard
This Thursday, June 17, at 7:00 p.m. at the Ruby G. Schulman Auditorium in Carlsbad’s Dove Library, 1779 Dove Lane, Carlsbad, two AICF recipients, violinist Asi Matathias, and pianist Victor Stanislavsky, will perform works by Cesar Franck and Edvard Grieg. The concert is part of the San Diego Jewish Music Series of the San Diego Center for Jewish Culture. It is underwritten by the Leichtag Foundation.
Violinist Asi Matathias, 22, made his debut at 14 with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Zubin Mehta. Mehta was so impressed by the youth that he invited him to solo with the IPO the following season. Mehta described Asi as “extremely musical, sensitive and technically accurate.”
After Asi’s early violin training in Israel with Chaim Taub, the talented young man continued his studies at the Universitat fur Musik und darstellende Kunst in Vienna. He has been supported by the AICF since 1997.
Asi has performed with orchestras in Europe and recorded with the BBC, the Austrian Radio, and the Israel Broadcasting Authority. Currently, he is working with Pinchas Zukerman as a scholarship student at the Manhattan School of Music.
Along with his studies, he continues to concertiize. His 2009-10 season included a concert at Carnegie Hall Stern Auditorium, playing alongside pianist Yefim Bronfman and cellist Wolfgang Laufer; solo programs in Carnegie Weill Recital Hall, Alice Tully Hall in Lincoln Center, and in Japan, and another solo performance with the IPO.
Pianist Victor Stanislavsky, 27, has been an AICF scholarship winner since 2002. He has also won top prizes in Italy’s “Pozzoli International Piano Competion and in China’s International Piano Competition. Recently, he was one of thirty pianists world-wide, invited to compete in the Van Cliburn Competition.
Victor was born in the Ukraine and moved to Israel in 1990. His early training was at the Rubin Academy in Haifa. He received his BA degree with highest honors from the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music of the Tel Aviv University. In addition to soloing with Israel’s top orchestras, he has performed in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Eastern and Western Europe, South Korea and China.
After a recent Athenaeum Concert in La Jolla, Ken Herman of the La Jolla Light praised his “youthful vigor and mature interpretation.”
Tickets for the recital are $15 JCC members, $18 non-members. Call 858-362-1348.
OPINION – Leon de Winter: Anti-Semitism is Salonfähig Again
(WJC)–The following article by the Dutch novelist Leon de Winter appeared in the ‘Wall Street Journal Europe’ on 14 June 2010.
It’s a fascinating phenomenon: Why do people and organizations that present themselves as progressive team up with reactionary Muslims? The Free Gaza group is just such a Leftist-Islamist alliance. Well, Gaza is already free. Israel withdrew from the narrow strip five years ago. And there is also no need for any humanitarian aid. Well over a million tons of humanitarian supplies entered Gaza from Israel over the last 18 months, equaling nearly a ton of aid for every man, woman and child in Gaza.
But Gaza’s population voted in democratic elections to be ruled by a party whose hatred of Jews is the cornerstone of its existence. Anyone who doubts this should read the Hamas manifesto on the Internet. The fact that Gaza is completely “judenrein” isn’t enough for Hamas. It wants Israel to be “judenrein” too. The Israeli blockade for “strategic goods” is therefore not designed to punish ordinary Palestinians but to prevent Hamas from obtaining heavy weapons and building bunkers. It’s as simple as that.
Contrary to Gaza, Chechnya, for example, isn’t free. The Russians have crushed the struggle for independence of the Chechens by carpet-bombing their capital. And what about a Kurdish state? The Turks and Iraqis have inflicted unspeakable horrors on the Kurds. And yet, there are no Free Kurdistan flotillas sailing toward Turkey, and Russian officials don’t have to fear to be arrested in European capitals for war crimes.
Here are some more facts — lousy, stubborn facts. Let’s look at the infant mortality rate in Gaza. It is a key number that says a lot about the state of hygiene, nutrition, and health care. In Israel the infant mortality rate is 4.17 per 1,000 births, which is about the same as in Western countries. In Sudan the rate is 78.1, that is, one in 13 infants die at birth. In Gaza, infant mortality per 1,000 births is 17.71. Yes, that’s higher than in Israel, but much lower than in Sudan. And Turkey’s infant mortality rate? Well, that’s 24.84. Yes, more infants die at birth in Turkey than in Gaza.
Here is another fact. Life expectancy at birth is 73.68 years in Gaza. And in Turkey, Gaza’s new protector, life expectancy is only 72.23 years. If the Israelis really wanted to make the lives of Palestinians short and nasty, then they are obviously doing something wrong.
The progressives don’t care for any other group of poor or suppressed Muslims. They only cry for the “victims” of the Jews. Why is that so?
One reason is Yasser Arafat, whose genius was to redefine the Palestinian cause in neo-Marxist and anti-imperialist rhetorics. He created a new context for his people: The struggle against colonialism and racism. He was a classic corrupt warlord with an amazing talent to play the Western media and politicians. The progressives adopted the Palestinians as their favorite, quintessential victims of imperialism and colonialism as epitomized by the Zionist state.
But there is another reason why Western progressives hate Israel but are indifferent toward human rights abuses in Turkey, Iran, or Russia. It’s because of the Holocaust.
Europeans, who represent much of what goes for world opinion, have grown tired of carrying the guilt for the destruction of the Continent’s Jews. They have started to long for some form of historical release. That comes in the form of Israel’s military response to Islamist attacks and terror. The Europeans couldn’t suppress the chance to defame the Jews and redefine Israel’s defense measures as either “disproportionate” or outright aggression — war crimes in other words.
In progressive European eyes, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict became a conflict without comparison, a unique phenomenon of European victims creating Palestinian victims, which seemed to diminish the weight of the ordinary European mass-slaughter of the Jews.
Watching Israel’s demonization, the attack on its right to defend itself as Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu said, it becomes clear that there is a deep need among Europeans to call the Jews murderers. This is why the Palestinians, as “victims” of the Jews, are more important than the numerous Muslim victims of Muslim extremists; this is why millions of other Muslims living under worse conditions than the Palestinians hardly get any mention in the media; this is why Gaza is compared to the Warsaw Ghetto or Auschwitz. By calling the Israeli Nazis, the original Nazis have been legitimized. It feels as if the Europeans, led by the progressives, want the Arabs to finish the job. Enough with the Jews. It is what it is — we see Europe’s liberation from the legacy of the Holocaust.
For decades, our progressive, peace-loving Western activists have been fooled and manipulated by Arab tyrants and now by Turkish and Iranian Islamists. They have allowed themselves to assist in efforts to destroy one of the greatest adventures in modern times: the creation of the State of Israel.
What we have witnessed with the Gaza flotilla is the perfect execution of a masterful piece of Islamist theater. The media’s wild indignation, an orgasm of hypocrisy, marks the next chapter in the long story of European hatred toward the Jews. It is salonfahig again to be an anti-Semite.
*
Preceding provided by World Jewish Congress.
Israel sets up independent inquiry into Gaza flotilla raid
(WJC)–The Israel Cabinet has unanimously voted to up an independent public inquiry into the deadly raid on one of the ships of the ‘Gaza Freedom Flotilla’ a fortnight ago, in which nine people were killed. The inquiry will be headed by the former Israel Supreme Court judge Jacob Turkel. The former first minister of Northern Ireland and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Lord David Trimble as well as the former Canadian lawyer Ken Watkin will be non-voting members on the commission. Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the decision would “make it clear to the world that Israel is acting legally, responsibly, and with complete transparency.”
The other Israeli members will be international law professor Shabtai Rosen and the retired IDF major-general Amos Horev. Under the terms of its mandate, the commission will consider the security circumstances for imposing a naval blockade on the Gaza Strip and the conformity of the naval blockade with the rules of international law, the conformity of the actions taken by Israel to the principles of international law, and the actions taken by those who organized and participated in the flotilla.
Israel’s government said in a statement that the commission would also consider the question of “whether the inquiry and investigation mechanisms vis-à-vis complaints and claims regarding violations of the laws of armed conflict, as followed by Israel in general and as implemented with regard to the event in question, conform with the State of Israel’s obligations under the rules of international law.”
The Obama administration publicly endorsed the Israeli decision: “The structure and terms of reference of Israel’s proposed independent public commission can meet the standard of a prompt, impartial, credible, and transparent investigation,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said in a statement.
*
Preceding provided by World Jewish Congress.
Prasquier re-elected as political leader of French Jewry
Richard Prasquier, a 65-year-old Paris cardiologist, has been re-elected as president of CRIF, the umbrella
representative group of French Jewish organizations, for a second three-year term. At a meeting of the organization’s General Assembly, Prasquier beat his rival Meyer Habib, one of CRIF’s vice-presidents, by 106 to 61 votes.
Some 60 Jewish associations and movements are represented in the General Assembly. Prasquier was first elected in 2007, when he succeeded Roger Cukierman.
CRIF, which defines itself as the “official and political voice of France’s Jewish community, was founded in Lyon in 1943 as an underground network to save Jews in Nazi-occupied France from deportation to the death camps.
*
Preceding provided by World Jewish Congress.
UK government appoints first-ever envoy for Holocaust-related issues
(WJC)–The British government has appointed its first-ever envoy to deal with post-Holocaust issues. Foreign
Secretary William Hague announced that Sir Andrew Burns, a former ambassador to Israel, would take the job. Hague said his country was committed to preserving the memory of the Holocaust and would support efforts to make sure that the lessons of this period in history are not forgotten.
Burns will oversee efforts to resolve outstanding issues and claims related to property and art restitution. He will also take part in education efforts and promote remembrance and research about the Holocaust. “Sir Andrew’s appointment will ensure that we continue to support those working to right past wrongs,” Hague said.
Burns’ appointment was applauded in Israel. “We think it’s a very positive and important step … and we wish him a lot of success in his work in promoting Holocaust education and fighting for the rights of the survivors,” said Estee Yaari, a spokeswoman for Yad Vashem, was quoted by AP as saying. “The Holocaust is an issue that is part of all of our history.”
Recent international efforts have focused on providing restitution to aging victims of Nazi persecution. Last week, more than 40 countries agreed on a set of international rules for returning real estate stolen by the Nazis to their rightful owners or heirs.
*
Preceding provided by World Jewish Congress.
European Union and Red Cross press Israel to ease Gaza blockade
(WJC)–European Union officials said on Monday that Israel will likely agree to relax its blockade of the Gaza Strip by opening at least one border crossing to large-scale commercial traffic. Diplomats in Brussels were quoted by AP as saying that Israel would likely drop its restrictive list of goods that are permitted into the region. Instead, there would be a short, agreed list of items banned because of Israeli security concerns, the diplomats said on the condition that they not be named.
A diplomat said that Israel might be willing to open either the Karni or the Kerem Shalom border crossings for large-scale imports into Gaza. Israel rejected a proposal for cargo to be delivered by ships checked in a third location such as Cyprus, he added. The Karni and Kerem Shalom crossings have been open for humanitarian goods for the past few years. Israeli security officials have said talks are now under way to replace the Israeli supervision with an international presence, with the involvement of the Palestinians and the Egyptians.
EU foreign ministers are planning to call the Israeli blockade as “unacceptable and counterproductive”, according to a draft statement released on Monday. After meeting with Palestinian President Abbas in Madrid, Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, whose government currently holds the European Union’s rotating presidency, called for a “strong, joint EU position toward what happened in Gaza and the humanitarian situation in that area.”
Meanwhile, Tony Blair, the former British prime minister and now Middle East envoy of the International Quartet, said he was hopeful of a “significant” easing of Israel’s blockade of Gaza. Blair said he saw no real prospect of Israel lifting the naval blockade of the territory but added it was possible the list of items permitted to be brought into Gaza by land could be redrafted to allow more necessities of ordinary life to enter the coastal enclave. “I think it is possible to get a role back for the EU and the Palestinian Authority in the way that these crossings, or some of them, are monitored. The idea would be to make a significant change where the blockade would remain in respect of those items that are a security risk for Israel, but items for daily life will be able to come in,” Blair said on a BBC radio program.
In Geneva, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) called for the blockade to be lifted, saying it violated the Geneva Conventions. The ICRC also called on Hamas to release Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier abducted in a cross-border raid nearly four years ago. “The whole of Gaza’s civilian population is being punished for acts for which they bear no responsibility,” the ICRC said. “The closure therefore constitutes a collective punishment imposed in clear violation of Israel’s obligations under international humanitarian law.”
*
Preceding provided by World Jewish Congress.
Arnie is a perfect non-pet
Arnie, as seen through the window, dines at Cafe Nancy
By Donald H. Harrison
Donald H. Harrison
SAN DIEGO—“Arnie” has solved my wife Nancy’s problem, wanting to have a pet and at the same time not wanting to have a pet.
A kind soul, Nancy has loved and watched die after long lifetimes two dogs and two cats, and she can’t bear the idea of loving another animal, only to have to someday part with it. Furthermore, now that we are of “retirement” age, she’d like to travel without having to make arrangements for animal caretakers. Yet she clearly missed having an animal around.
Arnie solved all that. His name is short for the Hebrew word, “arnevet,” and, as you might have guessed, he is a rabbit, who has adopted us. We’ve had other rabbits come by before – one staying long enough to be named “Hoppy” by my happy grandchildren. But Arnie seems to have decided to make more permanent living arrangements than any of his predecessors did in our back yard.
Arnie’s rabbit hole is somewhere under the bush that grows against a fence separating our flat land from a steep slope that descends to a busy road. When we open our sliding door to the back yard, Arnie quickly scampers under the bush so that we won’t be tempted to touch him. Arnie apparently is able to distinguish his relative safety when we are standing behind the window instead of in front of it. The rabbit doesn’t mind us watching as he eats less than ten feet away—as long as we stay inside.
Thanks to Nancy, eating is what he does, in prodigious quantities. Nancy places lettuce and carrots in front of his bush, all of which Arnie happily gobbles, typically as soon as Nancy goes back inside. In just a few weeks of dining at the Cafe Nancy, he—or perhaps Arnie is a she?– has been growing quite big. And his cottontail has become more pronounced.
We worry about the big ravens that also sometimes visit our yard by way of the roof of our house. Will Arnie ever become so absorbed by the delightful crunching sound that lettuce makes in his mouth, that he’ll fail to notice the raven? It’s only a step or two from where he dines on our back lawn to his bush, but ravens can swoop down in an instant. I’d hate to see him being carried off by the bird.
Compared to household pets, Arnie is maintenance free. He doesn’t come into the house, he doesn’t have any “accidents,” and he doesn’t have to be combed. On the other hand, he doesn’t nuzzle you like our dogs used to do, nor does he sit in your lap and purr like our cats used to do.
We know, of course, of rabbits’ reputations as prodigious procreators and figure if Arnie could find his/her way here, then so might a mate. If so, before long we may have more bunnies around our house than Hugh Hefner has around his.
*
Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World
‘Chagall’ proves to be an exciting work in progress
By Sheila Orysiek
Sheila Orysiek
SAN DIEGO–The 17th Annual Jewish Arts Festival, which runs from May 30th to June 21, spans the wide spectrum of the performing arts. Malashock Dance and Hot P’Stromi brought together modern dance and Klezmer at the Lyceum Space Theatre in downtown San Diego. I attended the performance on June 13th.
What better way to celebrate art than to bring together artists of different genres to celebrate the life of another artist? John Malashock – founder and choreographer of Malashock Dance – and Yale Strom – violinist, composer, filmmaker, writer, playwright and photographer – combined their significant talents to produce their newest collaboration Chagall.
The Lyceum Space Theatre is a small venue (seating approximately 270) with a square stage jutting out into the audience on two sides. Thus one is both near enough to feel close to the action, but far enough away to see the design concept as a whole. Seats are in tiers, so for the most part sight lines are good. Because of the proximity over zealous amplification can be avoided – for which this observer is grateful.
Strom brings his varied background plus a group of musicians playing Klezmer (and more) under the name: Hot P’Stromi. The program opened with several selections of Klezmer from parts of Eastern Europe, such as the vicinity where Chagall was born and spent his childhood, to Romania which is just across the river.
Love it or not, and I do love it, it is impossible not to respond to Klezmer. In some ways it is like American jazz – the musicians responding to one another, each in turn picking up the motif – adding, subtracting, clarifying and crafting a specific sound for a specific instrument. Then, coming all together they go rollicking along. But, Klezmer also can be winsome and even sad. The audience reacted to both – some barely able to keep their seats.
John Malashock founded his modern dance company in 1988 and has been a significant presence in San Diego ever since. His background is impressive and runs the gamut from film (dancing in Amadeus), television specials, choreographing for many other companies – both dance and opera -culminating in four Emmy awards. He spoke to the audience briefly – but enjoyably – about the work being performed and his plans for it.
Chagall is still a work in progress and Malashock presented three scenes from what will eventually be a full length amalgam of dance, music and imagery. The first scene was of the village Vitebsk, where Chagall was born in what is now Belarus, but was then Russia and at times Poland. The second scene is his first significant love who introduces him to her friend who becomes the “love of his life.”
Michael Mizerany, associate artistic director and senior dancer (with an impressive resume including two Lester Horton Dance Awards) was “Chagall” and brought to the role an understanding of how to portray a painter/artist through the art of dance/movement.
It is difficult to understand why Chagall would reject his first love, Thea, (Lara Segura) for Bella (Christine Marshall). But love is not mental – it is visceral and there is no accounting for it. It is the one emotion we cannot place at the service of reason; however, I think I would enjoy seeing that explored a bit more. Segura was a lovely Thea. Costumed in a simple short white sheath she danced passionately while still innocent enough to introduce her friend to her lover. Marshall, surely a fine dancer, didn’t quite tell me what Chagall saw in her to capture his heart – but perhaps that was not Malashock’s intent. Or perhaps Chagall didn’t know.
Chagall’s physical love feeds his artistic vision. He takes his brush and paints her in invisible images upon invisible canvasses. Then, he uses his brush to explore her body – never vulgarly – but always seeking to understand her outline. Maybe that is what he really needs.
The pas de deux (this is modern dance so perhaps I should say “dance for two”) is well done – but somehow didn’t convey the depth of passion that must have been there. However, this is still a work in progress not only for the choreographer, but also for the dancers and they haven’t as yet internalized it. It is certainly a good beginning.
Tribes premiered in 1996 and has the feeling and confidence of a complete work, completely conceived – much like a Mozart symphony. It is a dance (again using Strom’s original music) which is described by Malashock as follows: “….each dancer creates his/her own culture. These fantastical “tribes” connect, collide, and ultimately share in a blending of the eternal spirit.”
It is always fascinating to see what Malashock does with the music; forming groups and then breaking them apart. Each twosome or threesome dances to the same music at the same time, but completely differently – bringing to view other aspects of the music. And each is valid and “true.” I find myself saying “yes, that is how the music looks.” He also never falls overly in love with his own invention – it is given, enjoyed and then he moves on, confident in his next vision. The flow is natural, never contrived, and though one knows of the reality of the endless rehearsal which must have taken place, the movement is fresh, natural and seemingly – what a painter would call – a “happy accident.”
The dance flows from shape to shape, pausing for just a moment to allow the eye to capture it, but still keeping the seams between phrases invisible. The entire body is used; hands and heads as important as legs and arms as important as spines and breath. There were a couple of times, when the choreography allowed, I would have enjoyed seeing some eye contact betwixt the dancer and the observer – a living connection; “I am also dancing for you.”
*
Dance critic Orysiek is based in San Diego. She may be contacted at ORZAK@aol.com
‘In the Heights’ will leave you on a high
By Cynthia Citron
Cynthia Citron
SAN DIEGO–Nestled at the foot of New York’s George Washington Bridge, way past all the trendy restaurants and the streets of neatly gentrified brownstones, on the UPPER upper West Side of Manhattan, is the neighborhood called Washington Heights. When I lived there as a child the community was made up, mostly, of middle-class German Jewish immigrants.
But that was a very long time ago. Now Washington Heights is home to a Latino population—Puerto Ricans, Cubans, Hondurans, Dominicans—all the multitudes of the Caribbean. And the stately sounds of Beethoven and Bach have been replaced by the vigorous rhythms of salsa and rap. Music just begging for a Broadway show.
The inevitable show, conceived and written (music and lyrics) by Lin-Manuel Miranda, with book by Quiara Alegria Hudes, is the singularly spectacular musical In the Heights. An updated West Side Story, without the gang-fights, In the Heights presents a Utopian world of “homies” all working together in their tightly structured community. It’s a love fest, and you’re bound to love it!
I was fortunate enough to see it in New York with its original Broadway cast, an incredibly talented and energetic ensemble. It will have a different cast when it opens in Los Angeles later this month, but with the caliber of its musical numbers and the exuberance of Andy Blankenbuehler’s rip-roaring choreography, the show can’t do anything but bounce you right out of your seat.
In the Heights won four Tony Awards in 2008, for Best Musical, Best Original Score, Orchestration, and Choreography. Need I say more?
As for the plot, it isn’t complicated and doesn’t distract from the singing and dancing. It’s about people trying to better themselves, trying to leave the barrio, trying to move on. Some do; some don’t. In fact, it’s much like a Latino version of Fiddler on the Roof. Except without the bittersweet ending.
In the Heights is definitely the best musical of the year, and I can’t urge you enough to get tickets now for its upcoming production at the Pantages Theatre. You’ll be so glad you did!
*
Citron is Los Angeles bureau chief for San Diego Jewish World
sdjewishworld 