Protest at “Jewrovision”
Central Council of Jews declares boos against Claudia Roth
5/21/2023 3:32 p.m
Especially since the anti-Semitism scandal at last year’s Documenta, the relationship between Claudia Roth and Jews in Germany seems to be seething. At a Jewish song contest, the politician is booed while delivering her greeting. Posters are also directed against them.
Minister of State for Culture Claudia Roth was confronted with boos at a Jewish music competition – but takes it calmly. A spokesman for the Green politician told the Tagesspiegel that she took part in the Jewrovision competition on Friday in Frankfurt am Main at the invitation of the President of the Central Council of Jews, Josef Schuster. During her greeting, some who disagreed with her policies and direction “voiced it loudly.”
The Central Council of Jews spoke of “long-standing frustration” that was clearly released at the event. “This is the consequence of the developments in the German cultural sector in recent years,” he told the “Tagesspiegel”. “Something has to change now, so that every form of anti-Semitism is permanently banned from the German cultural scene,” the newspaper quoted from a statement by the Central Council.
The background is probably the anti-Semitism scandal at the Documenta exhibition last year in Kassel, where a work was taken down. The art exhibition was co-financed from Roth’s budget. She was accused of having ignored previous warnings of anti-Semitic tendencies of the Indonesian exhibition organizers.
Ganss: “It’s not enough just to take care of dead Jews”
One of the vice-presidents of the German-Israeli Society (DIG), Marcus Faber from the FDP, explained in the “Tagesspiegel” that Roth’s “relative attitude” at the Documenta was “just the icing on the cake for a number of questionable positions and decisions”. “The relationship between Mrs. Roth and the Jews in Germany is disturbed.” Faber asked Roth to seek talks with the Jewish associations.
The chairman of the Young Forum in the DIG, Constantin Ganss, told the newspaper: “It’s not enough just to take care of dead Jews. To make that clear, the young Jewish people protested against Ms. Roth.”
A video shared by one of the DIG Vice Presidents, Anna Staroselski, on Twitter shows Roth interrupting her speech in the face of the protests and shouting: “This is democracy. I accept this criticism because we have a strong and a colorful and a bold democracy.” Staroselski captioned the video: “Mission to clean up has failed.” She also tweeted posters from the event, apparently created for the event as a protest. Roth’s name is crossed out once. A poster reads “No place for anti-Semitism”. Another poster critically mentions both the Documenta and the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which critics say is trying to isolate the state of Israel economically, culturally and politically.
Roth once voted against a motion by the Bundestag that classified the argumentation patterns and methods of the movement as anti-Semitic – which was seen as very critical by many Jews. In the “Jewish General” Roth recently commented on the Documenta and the BDS movement in an interview.
With regard to the booing at the song contest, Roth’s spokesman emphasized that the politician had exchanged views with the shoemaker and the young people taking part before the incident. From her point of view, it was “very good and exciting”. Roth also has “a very good relationship with many people who represent and shape Jewish life in Germany today, and maintains close contact with them”.