Re: ATTENTION - The German thing...

[Ari Davidow <ari...>]

>Recently I've recorded an album of Jewish music, which I was hesitant
>about, as I didn't want to be put
>in the situation, or of putting myself in the situation, where it could be
>stated that I'm "selling" my Judaism
>to the Germans, who are only too willing to buy "forgiveness". This
>uncomfortable situation can easily
>be worsened by other Jews, some of whom are ONLY interested in the money
>Germans willingly proffer 
>(and believe me, the money in Germany and Switzerland is HUGE).

Sounds like a double problem. There are your own feelings
about playing in Germany, and then there is the way you
are perceived by others for playing in Germany, some of
whom clearly see you as having sold out to the land of
evil people, perpetrators of the Holocaust. For such,
there probably isn't much difference morally between
playing Wagner at Aushwitz and playing a Bobover Waltz
in Berlin. But there is no answer to those people who
have been so scarred by what happened? You can't change
their pain, and you can't undo what happened. It is only
the future that is, to a degree, in our hands, not the 
past. 

ari