Re: Fwd: Henry's Yiddish Radio Project Draws Hate Mail

[Eliott Kahn <Elkahn...>]

Robert:

Thank you for sharing this. It makes me so damn mad. Finally they play 
something that's  distinctively Jewish over mainstream American radio and 
people complain about "the timing." 

You never hear anyone complaining about "the timing" of Celtic music during the 
Northern Ireland crisis, and as Henry Sapoznik so eloquently states, "What does 
the Delta Blues have to do with genocide in Rwanda?"

Thank you Henry for hanging tough and telling these hate mongers where to go. 
Incidentally, for those of you who weren't in Washington, D.C. last Monday, you 
should take heart.  There were about 150,000 Jews there. Although many were 
young people, believe me, the adults in the crowd  were in no mood to put up 
with any of this anti-semitic bullshit.

These American ignoramuses should know that. And as for our European "friends": 
we might begin asking if there is such a thing as an anti-semitic gene that 
these folks cannot rid themselves of. Talk about a master race....

Mad as hell in New York City,

Eliott Kahn



At 05:07 PM 4/23/02 +0000, Robert Cohen wrote:
>From yesterday's Times--this is truly weird.  It's certainly Exhibit #9,000, 
>or whatever, of anti-Zionism = anti-Semitism (only somehow, weirdly, in 
>reverse); but I wonder what, if anything, it says about (parts, obviously, of) 
>NPR's audience.
>
>No wonder Henry encouraged me to write NPR about the show when I mentioned 
>enjoying it.  Maybe others should be writing them?
>
>--Robert Cohen
>
>
>>Yiddish Project Draws Hate Mail
>>
>>April 22, 2002
>>
>>By BERNARD STAMLER
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>The Yiddish Radio Project was intended to be a lighthearted
>>review of the radio shows broadcast for immigrant Jews in
>>America during the first part of the 20th century.
>>
>>But after the recent conflict in the Middle East, the
>>project, a 10-week series on National Public Radio, has
>>become something more: a lightning rod for listener
>>criticism. That criticism has included some "good,
>>old-fashioned anti-Semitism," said Henry Sapoznik, a
>>co-producer of the series.
>>
>>The broadcasts, which were scheduled months ago, are heard
>>on Tuesdays on NPR's evening news program "All Things
>>Considered." The first segment was broadcast on March 19,
>>and five shows have been broadcast so far.
>>
>>"We routinely get deluged by both sides whenever the Middle
>>East blows up," said Jeffrey Dvorkin, the ombudsman for
>>NPR, which is generally thought to attract an upscale,
>>highly educated audience. But he said there was something
>>different about a number of the messages.
>>
>>Those messages, which he characterized as anti-Semitic, are
>>generally sent via e-mail and are often signed, Mr. Dvorkin
>>said. Some of those sent to him and to "All Things
>>Considered," copies of which were provided by Mr. Sapoznik,
>>disparage the series by using Yiddish words and expressions
>>like "oy vey" to mock it.
>>
>>Others are of what Mr. Sapoznik called the "who is paying
>>you to do this" kind, like a message lamenting the possible
>>role of "some big donors" in selecting the Yiddish Radio
>>Project for broadcast.
>>
>>Most notable, however, are those that connect events in the
>>Middle East to the broadcasts.
>>
>>One such message complains of an "eternal blitz" of Yiddish
>>radio, asking whether the series was "designed to obscure
>>the Israeli brutality in Palestine." Another protests the
>>presentation of "this kind of warm and fuzzy fluff"
>>whenever Israel undertakes military action. Yet another
>>says, "How do you say bloody Israeli storm troopers in
>>Yiddish?" It continues: "How do you say, `Hey, these guys
>>learned all the wrong lessons from the Nazis!' In Yiddish?"
>>
>>
>>David Isay, Mr. Sapoznik's collaborator on the Yiddish
>>Radio Project, said, "I've done a lot of controversial
>>stories, but I've never seen the kind of e-mails we are
>>getting here."
>>
>>The number of overtly anti-Semitic e-mail messages is
>>small, Mr. Dvorkin said, perhaps a quarter of the 300 he
>>and "All Things Considered" have received about the Yiddish
>>project. (Mr. Dvorkin said he had received "tens of
>>thousands" of messages in recent weeks about the Middle
>>East and NPR's news coverage. Much of those are the result
>>of organized letter-writing campaigns.)
>>
>>There have also been messages from Jewish listeners who
>>contend that NPR has a pro-Palestinian bias, one for which
>>it cannot compensate by presenting programs that show Jews
>>in a favorable light. Some listeners have written to say
>>that the subject simply does not interest them. There have
>>been complimentary letters, too.
>>
>>Still, roughly half of those who have written to NPR about
>>the Yiddish Radio Project have been critical of it, said
>>Jonathan Kern, executive producer of "All Things
>>Considered." Many of those listeners have questioned the
>>timing of the program, an objection that Mr. Kern said he
>>would not necessarily characterize as anti-Semitic.
>>
>>But Mr. Sapoznik disagrees. He said that conflating the
>>actions of the modern state of Israel with the contents of
>>American radio shows made more than 50 years ago is
>>"nativist anti-Semitism." He called that position something
>>"right out of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion,"
>>referring to the early 1900's Russian forgery purporting to
>>detail a Jewish conspiracy to dominate the world.
>>
>>"If we had done a series on black Delta blues music at the
>>same time as there was genocide in Rwanda," he said, "this
>>wouldn't happen. People would never confuse blacks in
>>America and blacks in Africa."
>>
>>
>>http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/22/business/media/22NPR.html?ex=1020579400&ei=1&en=476381d743105e6a
>
>>Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company
>
>
>
>
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