“The group’s official description of the play reads: “In defiance of their entire society and in secrecy from their closest friends, hopeful young lives burn amidst a cataclysmic backdrop of impending war and the horror of the Holocaust. Sun and moon shine down on star-crossed lovers as a Jewish girl falls for a member of (Hitler) Youth and the boy questions everything he was taught to believe.”
To: Max Lewendel, the Jewish founder of the Icarus Theatre Collective
From: John Presco president Royal Rosamond Press
I can save your play. The Turnverein groups of Berlin accepted Jews – and deliberately married their children – so that their secular ideals will prevail over Christianity and Zionism. THE LOVE for Berlin was mutual. The Berlin Zionists tried to sway the Jews in this group into supporting the Zionist cause. They would form the Turnverein Judaism, and form the first colonies in Israel.
I would have Romeo be of mixed blood, his parents members of the Berlin Turnverein. Juliet’s father is a religious Zionists, who is appalled by the idea his only child would marry a Gentile. Juliet’s uncle is a rabbi who is the leader of a colony in Palestine. Hitter rises to power. Romeo and Juliet meet and fall in love. An Exodus of Jews head to the colonies. Romeo wants Juliet to stay – in hope good Germans will stop the monster. In youth, hope springs eternal. Suspected of having Jewish blood, Romeo is formed to join the Nazi Youth – while Juliet goes into hiding. There is a plan to smuggle her out.
John
Secular-Socialist Foundation of Zion
Posted on December 21, 2011 by Royal Rosamond Press
It was radical socialist Jews, who belonged to sports clubs, that founded the state of Israel, and not Rabbis or a Messiah. The only person giving the title ‘Messiah’ was Harry Truman, a Democrat. The group that gets most of the credit is the Israelitische Turnverein, a group of Jewish gymnasts who were expelled from the Berlin Turnverien. My Stuttmeiser, Janke kinfolk were members of the Tunrverein, and were radical Forty-Eighters who are also give credit for the founding of Israel. These Forty-Eighters made up John Fremont’s and Jessie Benton’s bodyguard. The Freemasons are here. Other clubs that followed were named after “Bar Kochba” who was seen as a Messiah until he failed to drive the Romans out of Judea. His name was changed to “Simon bar Kozeba” (Hebrew: בר כוזיבא, “Son of lies” or “Son of deception”).
The centerpiece of German-Zionist cooperation during the Hitler era was the Transfer Agreement, a pact that enabled tens of thousands of German Jews to migrate to Palestine with their wealth. The Agreement, also known as the Haavara (Hebrew for “transfer”), was concluded in August 1933 following talks between German officials and Chaim Arlosoroff, Political Secretary of the Jewish Agency, the Palestine center of the World Zionist Organization. /32
Romeo woos Juliet on the balcony in a 1937 lithograph from the American School. (Image via Getty. Design by Mollie Suss.)
(JTA) — The London-based theater group behind a Romeo and Juliet-inspired Nazi-Jewish love story has canceled the play after receiving an onslaught of criticism related to the story’s premise and a botched casting call.
The Icarus Theatre Collective, the group behind the play, put out a casting call on Friday for their “Romeo and Juliet” over email and on social media, specifically calling for “non-binary artists, and/or those of global majority, black or Asian heritage” to audition for the reimagined roles of Romeo and Mercutio, as well as a female-presenting actor to play the traditionally male character of Tybalt.
But for the role of Juliet, the Jewish counterpart to Romeo’s character in the Hitler Youth, the Icarus Theatre Collective did not include a specific request for Jewish actors to audition as part of the casting call. In an era of increased scrutiny over the casting of Jewish actors to play Jewish characters, the omission drew criticism.
Speaking with the Jewish Chronicle, Max Lewendel, the Jewish founder of the Icarus Theatre Collective and director of “Romeo and Juliet,” said the initial casting call specified that Juliet Capulet and her parents be played by actors with “preferably Jewish heritage.” Lewendel said the final draft of the casting call was put out by the casting director and should have included a preference for Jewish actors.
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“That is absolutely not what was intended, and apologies to anyone that was understandably affected by this,” Lewendel told the Jewish Chronicle.
In an apology tweet on Monday, the Icarus Theatre Collective wrote, “These are NOT two households both alike in dignity,” referring to lines from the prologue of “Romeo and Juliet,” which the group says it had cut from their version of the play because it put the Nazi Montagues and the Jewish Capulets on equal footing.
“Please understand our intention in Romeo & Juliet is to portray the Montagues as the bad guys and the kids brainwashed as per Jojo Rabbit,” the thread continued, referencing the 2019 comedy-drama film about a boy in the Hitler Youth. “Particularly as a criticism of the current political situation.”
The group also wrote that part of its research and development process “has always been to include members of the Jewish community to presentations, as we recognise that the director’s background is not sufficient to ensure proper presentation of this dangerous concept: These are NOT two housholds [sic] both alike in dignity.”
The Campaign Against Antisemitism, a British watchdog group, publicly criticized the play. In a tweet, the group said, “It is staggering that anyone would find this play about morally-equivalent feuding families to be an appropriate way to explore Nuremberg-era persecution of Jews by Nazi Germany.”
“It’s the increasing fascism in the world today that has kind of become a trend in my work,” Lewendel told the Jewish Chronicle about his decision to situate the play during the Holocaust.
Public response to the premise of the play itself has been mostly negative.
“This is a monumentally terrible idea,” one user wrote on Twitter.
“This new Romeo and Juliet nazi idea feels so genuinely like a 30 Rock Episode that I simply have to laugh at the absurdity!” another person wrote.
The group’s official description of the play reads: “In defiance of their entire society and in secrecy from their closest friends, hopeful young lives burn amidst a cataclysmic backdrop of impending war and the horror of the Holocaust. Sun and moon shine down on star-crossed lovers as a Jewish girl falls for a member of (Hitler) Youth and the boy questions everything he was taught to believe.”
The show was scheduled to run in March 2023.
Rosamond Press 