Seven Jewish Children
Encyclopedia
Seven Jewish Children: A Play for Gaza is a controversial six-page, 10-minute play by British playwright Caryl Churchill
, written in response to the 2008-2009 Israel military strike on Gaza, and first performed at London's Royal Court Theatre
on 6 February 2009. Churchill, a patron of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign
, has said that anyone wishing to produce it may do so gratis, so long as they hold a collection for the people of Gaza
at the end.
Seven Jewish Children consists of seven scenes spread over roughly seventy years, in which Jewish adults discuss what, or whether, their children should be told about certain events in recent Jewish history that the play alludes to only indirectly : The Holocaust
, Jewish immigration to Palestine, the creation of Israel, the flight or expulsion
of Palestinian Arabs, the 1948 Arab-Israeli War
, the dispute over water
, the First Intifada
, the death of Rachel Corrie
, the building of the West Bank barrier
, the death of Muhammad al-Durrah
, Palestinian suicide attack
s, Hamas rocket attacks, and the 2008 bombing of Gaza.
The play takes the form of a litany
, repeating the phrases "Tell her", "Don't tell her" to reflect an ostensible tension within Israel and the Jewish community over how to describe events in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
: "Tell her for miles and miles all round they have lands of their own/Tell her again this is our promised land/Don't tell her they said it was a land without people/Don't tell her I wouldn't have come if I'd known/Tell her maybe we can share/Don't tell her that." Churchill has been particularly criticized for a monologue within the play purportedly representing a hardline Israeli view: "tell her I look at one of their children covered in blood and what do I feel? tell her all I feel is happy it's not her/Don't tell her that."
Reaction to the play has been mixed. The Board of Deputies of British Jews
has criticized it as "horrifically anti-Israel," and "beyond the boundaries of reasonable political discourse," and Jeffrey Goldberg
of the Atlantic Monthly called the play a blood libel
, "the mainstreaming of the worst anti-Jewish stereotypes,", while playwright Tony Kushner
and academic Alisa Solomon, both Jewish-American critics of Israeli policy, argue in The Nation that the play is dense, beautiful and elusive, and that "[a]ny play about the crisis in the Middle East that doesn't arouse anger and distress has missed the point."
These motifs can be seen in the opening lines of the play:
Although Churchill indicates that the scenes concern different children, thus speakers change between them, she leaves it for each production to decide how many adults take part and how the lines are shared between them. The Guardian, for example, has produced a version with Jennie Stoller that is a simple monologue
throughout.
The first two scenes concern the Holocaust, featuring one family that are hiding from Nazis and another wondering how to tell their child of the many family members who have been killed. Later scenes are about episodes in the development of the Israeli-Arab conflict: one family is migrating to Jerusalem, another wondering what to tell their daughter about Palestinian Arabs, the next discusses an Israeli victory, and the next are speaking as the Israeli West Bank barrier
is being built and when a Palestinian child has been shot. The culminating scene is during the 2008–2009 Israel–Gaza conflict
.
, a British medical aid and political advocacy organization. She has made the script of the play available as a downloadable PDF on the website of the Royal Court Theatre. A one-woman video performance
of the play is also available online from The Guardians website.
awarded the play four of five stars and wrote that the play captures his belief that "security has become the pretext for indiscriminate slaughter." "Mr. Billington’s sympathetic review describes the context of the cryptic play and points to some of the lines from the script that have disturbed readers like Mr. Goldberg." The Times
s Dominic Maxwell also awarded the play four of five stars and praised it for an "impassioned response to the events in Gaza that is elliptical, empathetic and illuminating." In Saudi Arabian Saudi Gazette
, London based freelance journalist Susannah Tarbush wrote that the play “succinctly dramatizes the tragedies and ironies of history for both sides” and builds to what she calls “a devastating final scene set during the Gaza onslaught.”
Noting the comments by the Board of Deputies
, in The Nation
, award-winning dramatist and essayist Tony Kushner
and academic journalist and critic Alisa Solomon, both Jewish American critics of modern Israeli politics, wrote:
Charlotte Higgins, The Guardian's chief arts writer, defended the work by saying:
, condemning the play for its "straitjacket
ed political orthodoxy," criticized Churchill's "ludicrous and utterly predictable lack of even-handedness," typical, he said, of the "enclosed, fetid, smug, self-congratulating and entirely irrelevant little world of contemporary political theatre
." Theatre critic Jan Dalley of the Financial Times
described the play as "agitprop
" harking back to long-discredited revolutionary ideas, similar to Bret Stephens
's criticism in the Wall Street Journal. and Susannah Clapp's criticism in The Observer
. Jeffrey Goldberg
of the Atlantic Monthly also calls the play a blood libel
and said it was "the mainstreaming of the worst anti-Jewish stereotypes -- for instance, that Jews glory in the shedding of non-Jewish blood -- is upon us". Columnist Melanie Phillips
wrote that the play is "An open vilification of the Jewish people... drawing upon an atavistic hatred of the Jews” and called it an "open incitement to hatred”. Patrick Healy from The New York Times
wrote that the play "at times paints heartless images of Israelis."
The Board of Deputies of British Jews
, invited to preview the play, accused Churchill of being "Anti-Israel". Jonathan Hoffman, co-vice chairman of the Zionist Federation of Great Britain and Ireland
, called the play "a libellous and despicable demonisation of Israeli parents and grandparents" and expressed fear that it would "stoke the fires of antisemitism". He added that the play is a modern blood libel
drawing on old anti-Semitic myths.
59 well-known British Jews published a letter published in the Daily Telegraph claiming that Seven Jewish Children reinforces "false stereotype
s" and demonizing Israel for depicting Israelis as "inhuman triumphalists" who teach their children "Arabs must be hated", while it is "historically inaccurate" since it "fails to say that the Six Day War was a defensive war
" and it doesn't contain Israel's "withdrawal from Gaza in 2005" or "more than 6,000 rockets" launched by Hamas
indiscriminately. Signatories included Professor Geoffrey Alderman
, the Michael Gross Professor of Modern History at the University of Buckingham; Greville Janner, Baron Janner of Braunstone, the Labour peer and former president of the Board of Deputies; Maureen Lipman
, the actress; Ronald Harwood
, the Oscar-winning screenwriter; Tracy-Ann Oberman
, the actress who starred in EastEnders
.
Playwright Israel Horovitz
, who wrote a play in response to Churchill entitled What Strong Fences Make
, argued that while it is possible to criticize Israel without being anti-Semitic and to criticize Palestine without being anti-Arab: "Those who criticize Jews in the name of criticizing Israel, as Ms. Churchill seems to have done in her play, step over an unacceptable boundary and must be taken to task."
, though finding the play theatrically beautiful, criticized the play as anti-semitic and The Royal Court Theatre's artistic director, Dominic Cooke for not following, National Theatre
's director Nicholas Hytner
's policy that a play that is entirely populated by, and is critical of, a religious minority, can only be staged at the National Theatre if it is written by a member of that minority. Further criticism centered on Associate Director of the Royal Court Theatre, Ramin Gray
's interview, in which he said that he [as a director] "would think twice" about staging a play "very critical of Islam, or [which] depicted Mohammed" since "given the times we're in" he would worry that if he "cause[d] offence then the whole enterprise would become buried in a sea of controversy" while the theatre did stage a play as Seven Jewish Children that is critical of some Israeli Jews and politics, Jonathan Romain
argued that is because "fear".
The theatre admitted the play was critical of Israel but denied this meant that it was anti-Semitic against "some concerns". A spokesman argued "in keeping with its philosophy" the theatre presents "a multiplicity of viewpoints". He gave example of their 2 plays staged along Seven Jewish Children [at that time]: The Stone that "asks very difficult questions about the refusal of some modern Germans to accept their ancestors' complicity in Nazi atrocities" running before Seven Jewish Children with Shades "set in contemporary London which explores issues of tolerance in the Muslim community" staging at their smaller studio theatre. Spokesman said:
which sought to place Seven Jewish Children and other criticism of Israel in the context of a rise in anti-Semitism, Churchill defended herself: “Howard Jacobson writes as if there’s something new about describing critics of Israel as anti-Semitic. But it’s the usual tactic. We are not going to agree about politics … But we should be able to disagree without accusations of anti-Semitism." The play was about the difficulties of explaining violence to children. Its length meant favourable and unfavourable information about Israel had been omitted, she said.
, Daisy Lewis, Ruth Posner, Samuel Roukin
, Jennie Stoller, Susannah Wise
, and Alexis Zegerman
. Susannah Tarbush argued "that most, if not all, the actors are Jewish." The play was directed by Dominic Cooke
who is Jewish himself. Some of the original cast gave a performance of the play introduced by Churchill herself as part of the Two Plays for Gaza fund-raising event at the Hackney Empire
on 21 May 2009.
At the Royal Court the play was staged following Marius von Mayenburg
’s The Stone, a play about a German family who live in a house taken from vanished Jews and who grapple with the Nazi past of their family and nation.
. Jeremy Howe, the commissioning drama editor for Radio 4
, said that both he and Mark Damazer
, the channel's controller, considered the play a "brilliant piece", but agreed that it could not be broadcast because of the BBC's policy of editorial impartiality.
The first staged reading of the play in New York City took place on 16 March 2009 at the Brecht Forum and featured Broadway actress Kathleen Chalfant. http://brechtforum.org/events/seven-jewish-children
A rehearsed reading took place at the State Library of Victoria
in Melbourne
on 18 May 2009 at a fund-raising event for Australians for Palestine. As a result of her participation, the Jewish actress Miriam Margoyles had an invitation withdrawn to perform in front of residents at a home run by the Australian Jewish Care.
A Hebrew translation of the play was staged in Tel-Aviv on 11 June 2009. It was directed online via Skype and video by Samieh Jabbarin, who has been under house arrest for four months. The play was also performed at the American University in Cairo
, Egypt
, directed by a Palestinian student as part of an advanced directing class.
In May 2009, the city of Liverpool
withdrew public funding from a theatre festival that had scheduled Seven Jewish Children after the producers refused to also perform another play, Seven Other Children
by Richard Stirling of Evergreen Theatrical Productions. Development coordinator for the festival Madeline Heneghan remarked that since "The program is planned months in advance." the request was "unrealistic at this point".
The Rude Guerrilla Theatre Co. of Orange County
, California, announced that it will be producing the play. The New York Theater Workshop and the Public Theater are said to be considering a New York City
production. Both of them have performed plays by Churchill before.
Canadian group Independent Jewish Voices sponsored the play's Canadian premiere in Montreal
with 3 performances.
Gustavus Adolphus College
ran the show for 2 weekends from 30 October 2009 to 7 November 2009. It was performed after another one of Caryl Churchill
's plays Far Away (play)
, as well as a response to this play called Seven Palestinian Children by Deb Margolin
.
On 30 November 2009, the play was performed in the Lebanese American University in Beirut, Lebanon. The play was staged by a Lebanese student, Fuad Halwani as part of a Play Production course. Due to its success the play was performed again twice in the university campus, once on 26 March in celebration of World Theatre Day and again on 21 April as part of an Arab Popular Culture seminar. The play also participated and was performed in the University Theatre Festival in Fes, Morocco in April 2010.
and Forum Theater in Washington, D.C.
, followed their readings with a reading of Seven Palestinian Children a response by Deb Margolin
; the script is available online. The performance also included a reading of "The Eighth Child" by Robbie Gringras
.
London's New End Theatre
produced Seven Other Children
, a new play by Richard Stirling.
The New York playwright
Israel Horovitz
wrote a new short play entitled What Strong Fences Make
, arguing "another voice needed to be heard" against Churchill's play, that he claims as "offensive, distorted and manipulative". Horovitz has offered to allow any theatre that wishes to produce What Strong Fences Make free of royalties
, as long as a collection is taken up following all performances for the benefit of ONE Family Fund
, a charity that assists children wounded in attacks on Israel.
Caryl Churchill
Caryl Churchill is an English dramatist known for her use of non-naturalistic techniques and feminist themes, the abuses of power, and sexual politics. She is acknowledged as a major playwright in the English language and a leading female writer...
, written in response to the 2008-2009 Israel military strike on Gaza, and first performed at London's Royal Court Theatre
Royal Court Theatre
The Royal Court Theatre is a non-commercial theatre on Sloane Square, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It is noted for its contributions to modern theatre...
on 6 February 2009. Churchill, a patron of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign
Palestine Solidarity Campaign
The Palestine Solidarity Campaign is a campaign in the United Kingdom promoting solidarity with the Palestinian people. It was founded in 1982 during the build-up to Israel's invasion of Lebanon.The campaign states:...
, has said that anyone wishing to produce it may do so gratis, so long as they hold a collection for the people of Gaza
Gaza
Gaza , also referred to as Gaza City, is a Palestinian city in the Gaza Strip, with a population of about 450,000, making it the largest city in the Palestinian territories.Inhabited since at least the 15th century BC,...
at the end.
Seven Jewish Children consists of seven scenes spread over roughly seventy years, in which Jewish adults discuss what, or whether, their children should be told about certain events in recent Jewish history that the play alludes to only indirectly : The Holocaust
The Holocaust
The Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...
, Jewish immigration to Palestine, the creation of Israel, the flight or expulsion
1948 Palestinian exodus
The 1948 Palestinian exodus , also known as the Nakba , occurred when approximately 711,000 to 725,000 Palestinian Arabs left, fled or were expelled from their homes, during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War and the Civil War that preceded it. The exact number of refugees is a matter of dispute...
of Palestinian Arabs, the 1948 Arab-Israeli War
1948 Arab-Israeli War
The 1948 Arab–Israeli War, known to Israelis as the War of Independence or War of Liberation The war commenced after the termination of the British Mandate for Palestine and the creation of an independent Israel at midnight on 14 May 1948 when, following a period of civil war, Arab armies invaded...
, the dispute over water
Water supply and sanitation in Israel
Water supply and sanitation in Israel are intricately linked to the historical development of Israel. Because rain falls only in the winter, and largely in the northern part of the country, irrigation and water engineering is vital to the country's economic survival and growth...
, the First Intifada
First Intifada
The First Intifada was a Palestinian uprising against the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian Territories. The uprising began in the Jabalia refugee camp and quickly spread throughout Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem....
, the death of Rachel Corrie
Rachel Corrie
Rachel Aliene Corrie was an American member of the International Solidarity Movement . She was killed in the Gaza Strip by an Israel Defence Forces bulldozer when she was standing or kneeling in front of a local Palestinian's home, thus acting as a human shield, attempting to prevent the IDF from...
, the building of the West Bank barrier
Israeli West Bank barrier
The Israeli West Bank barrier is a separation barrier being constructed by the State of Israel along and within the West Bank. Upon completion, the barrier’s total length will be approximately...
, the death of Muhammad al-Durrah
Muhammad al-Durrah
The Muhammad al-Durrah incident took place in the Gaza Strip on September 30, 2000, on the second day of the Second Intifada, amid widespread rioting throughout the Palestinian territories...
, Palestinian suicide attack
Suicide attack
A suicide attack is a type of attack in which the attacker expects or intends to die in the process.- Historical :...
s, Hamas rocket attacks, and the 2008 bombing of Gaza.
The play takes the form of a litany
Litany
A litany, in Christian worship and some forms of Jewish worship, is a form of prayer used in services and processions, and consisting of a number of petitions...
, repeating the phrases "Tell her", "Don't tell her" to reflect an ostensible tension within Israel and the Jewish community over how to describe events in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
Israeli-Palestinian conflict
The Israeli–Palestinian conflict is the ongoing conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. The conflict is wide-ranging, and the term is also used in reference to the earlier phases of the same conflict, between Jewish and Zionist yishuv and the Arab population living in Palestine under Ottoman or...
: "Tell her for miles and miles all round they have lands of their own/Tell her again this is our promised land/Don't tell her they said it was a land without people/Don't tell her I wouldn't have come if I'd known/Tell her maybe we can share/Don't tell her that." Churchill has been particularly criticized for a monologue within the play purportedly representing a hardline Israeli view: "tell her I look at one of their children covered in blood and what do I feel? tell her all I feel is happy it's not her/Don't tell her that."
Reaction to the play has been mixed. The Board of Deputies of British Jews
Board of Deputies of British Jews
The Board of Deputies of British Jews is the main representative body of British Jews. Founded in 1760 as a joint committee of the Sephardi and Ashkenazi Jewish communities in London, it has since become a widely recognised forum for the views of the different sectors of the UK Jewish...
has criticized it as "horrifically anti-Israel," and "beyond the boundaries of reasonable political discourse," and Jeffrey Goldberg
Jeffrey Goldberg
Jeffrey Mark Goldberg is an American journalist. He is an author and a staff writer for The Atlantic, having previously worked for The New Yorker. Goldberg writes principally on foreign affairs, with a focus on the Middle East and Africa...
of the Atlantic Monthly called the play a blood libel
Blood libel
Blood libel is a false accusation or claim that religious minorities, usually Jews, murder children to use their blood in certain aspects of their religious rituals and holidays...
, "the mainstreaming of the worst anti-Jewish stereotypes,", while playwright Tony Kushner
Tony Kushner
Anthony Robert "Tony" Kushner is an American playwright and screenwriter. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1993 for his play, Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes, and co-authored with Eric Roth the screenplay for the 2005 film, Munich.-Life and career:Kushner was born...
and academic Alisa Solomon, both Jewish-American critics of Israeli policy, argue in The Nation that the play is dense, beautiful and elusive, and that "[a]ny play about the crisis in the Middle East that doesn't arouse anger and distress has missed the point."
Description
The play is based around the increasingly urgent repetition of "Tell her," and "Don't tell her". Occasionally breaking into this pattern is the injunction "don't frighten her", three significant words that are also the last in the play.These motifs can be seen in the opening lines of the play:
Tell her it’s a game
Tell her it’s serious
But don’t frighten her
Don’t tell her they’ll kill her
Although Churchill indicates that the scenes concern different children, thus speakers change between them, she leaves it for each production to decide how many adults take part and how the lines are shared between them. The Guardian, for example, has produced a version with Jennie Stoller that is a simple monologue
Monologue
In theatre, a monologue is a speech presented by a single character, most often to express their thoughts aloud, though sometimes also to directly address another character or the audience. Monologues are common across the range of dramatic media...
throughout.
The first two scenes concern the Holocaust, featuring one family that are hiding from Nazis and another wondering how to tell their child of the many family members who have been killed. Later scenes are about episodes in the development of the Israeli-Arab conflict: one family is migrating to Jerusalem, another wondering what to tell their daughter about Palestinian Arabs, the next discusses an Israeli victory, and the next are speaking as the Israeli West Bank barrier
Israeli West Bank barrier
The Israeli West Bank barrier is a separation barrier being constructed by the State of Israel along and within the West Bank. Upon completion, the barrier’s total length will be approximately...
is being built and when a Palestinian child has been shot. The culminating scene is during the 2008–2009 Israel–Gaza conflict
2008–2009 Israel–Gaza conflict
The Gaza War, known as Operation Cast Lead in Israel and as the Gaza Massacre in the Arab world, was a three-week bombing and invasion of the Gaza Strip by Israel, and hundreds of rocket attacks on south of Israel which...
.
Mission
Churchill has said she sees the play as a political event. Anyone wishing to produce it may do so for free so long as they take a collection for the people of Gaza after the performance, with proceeds to be sent to Medical Aid for PalestiniansMedical Aid for Palestinians
Medical Aid for Palestinians is a British charity that offers medical services in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Lebanon and, advocates for the universal right to health.-Aim and history:...
, a British medical aid and political advocacy organization. She has made the script of the play available as a downloadable PDF on the website of the Royal Court Theatre. A one-woman video performance
Performance
A performance, in performing arts, generally comprises an event in which a performer or group of performers behave in a particular way for another group of people, the audience. Choral music and ballet are examples. Usually the performers participate in rehearsals beforehand. Afterwards audience...
of the play is also available online from The Guardians website.
Praise
The Guardian theatre critic Michael BillingtonMichael Billington (critic)
Michael Keith Billington is a British author and arts critic. Drama critic of The Guardian since October 1971, he is "Britain's longest-serving theatre critic" and the author of biographical and critical studies relating to British theatre and the arts; most notably, he is the authorised...
awarded the play four of five stars and wrote that the play captures his belief that "security has become the pretext for indiscriminate slaughter." "Mr. Billington’s sympathetic review describes the context of the cryptic play and points to some of the lines from the script that have disturbed readers like Mr. Goldberg." The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
s Dominic Maxwell also awarded the play four of five stars and praised it for an "impassioned response to the events in Gaza that is elliptical, empathetic and illuminating." In Saudi Arabian Saudi Gazette
Saudi Gazette
Saudi Gazette is the leading English language daily newspaper published in Saudi Arabia. and is currently available both in print and online.As of July 1, 2011, Dr Omar S. Elmershedi is the Saudi Gazette Editor-in-Chief.Managing Editor: Shams Ahsan...
, London based freelance journalist Susannah Tarbush wrote that the play “succinctly dramatizes the tragedies and ironies of history for both sides” and builds to what she calls “a devastating final scene set during the Gaza onslaught.”
Noting the comments by the Board of Deputies
Board of Deputies of British Jews
The Board of Deputies of British Jews is the main representative body of British Jews. Founded in 1760 as a joint committee of the Sephardi and Ashkenazi Jewish communities in London, it has since become a widely recognised forum for the views of the different sectors of the UK Jewish...
, in The Nation
The Nation
The Nation is the oldest continuously published weekly magazine in the United States. The periodical, devoted to politics and culture, is self-described as "the flagship of the left." Founded on July 6, 1865, It is published by The Nation Company, L.P., at 33 Irving Place, New York City.The Nation...
, award-winning dramatist and essayist Tony Kushner
Tony Kushner
Anthony Robert "Tony" Kushner is an American playwright and screenwriter. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1993 for his play, Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes, and co-authored with Eric Roth the screenplay for the 2005 film, Munich.-Life and career:Kushner was born...
and academic journalist and critic Alisa Solomon, both Jewish American critics of modern Israeli politics, wrote:
"We emphatically disagree. We think Churchill's play should be seen and discussed as widely as possible... To see anti-Semitism here is to construe erroneously the words spoken by the worst of Churchill's characters as a statement from the playwright about all Jews as preternaturally filled with a viciousness unique among humankind. But to do this is, again, to distort what Churchill wrote."
Charlotte Higgins, The Guardian's chief arts writer, defended the work by saying:
The play did not strike me as antisemitic.... I cleave strongly to the view that it is possible to be critical of Israel without being antisemitic, and I do not believe that Churchill is making or otherwise implying universal claims about the Jewish people in this play.
Criticism
Christopher Hart of The Sunday TimesThe Sunday Times
The Sunday Times is a British Sunday newspaper.The Sunday Times may also refer to:*The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times...
, condemning the play for its "straitjacket
Straitjacket
A straitjacket is a garment shaped like a jacket with overlong sleeves and is typically used to restrain a person who may otherwise cause harm to themselves or others. Once the arms are inserted into the straitjacket's sleeves, they are then crossed across the chest...
ed political orthodoxy," criticized Churchill's "ludicrous and utterly predictable lack of even-handedness," typical, he said, of the "enclosed, fetid, smug, self-congratulating and entirely irrelevant little world of contemporary political theatre
Political theatre
In the history of theatre, there is long tradition of performances addressing issues of current events and central to society itself, encouraging consciousness and social change. The political satire performed by the comic poets at the theatres, had considerable influence on public opinion in the...
." Theatre critic Jan Dalley of the Financial Times
Financial Times
The Financial Times is an international business newspaper. It is a morning daily newspaper published in London and printed in 24 cities around the world. Its primary rival is the Wall Street Journal, published in New York City....
described the play as "agitprop
Agitprop
Agitprop is derived from agitation and propaganda, and describes stage plays, pamphlets, motion pictures and other art forms with an explicitly political message....
" harking back to long-discredited revolutionary ideas, similar to Bret Stephens
Bret Stephens
Bret Louis Stephens is the foreign-affairs columnist of the Wall Street Journal and deputy editorial page editor, responsible for the editorial pages of the Journals European and Asian editions...
's criticism in the Wall Street Journal. and Susannah Clapp's criticism in The Observer
The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
. Jeffrey Goldberg
Jeffrey Goldberg
Jeffrey Mark Goldberg is an American journalist. He is an author and a staff writer for The Atlantic, having previously worked for The New Yorker. Goldberg writes principally on foreign affairs, with a focus on the Middle East and Africa...
of the Atlantic Monthly also calls the play a blood libel
Blood libel
Blood libel is a false accusation or claim that religious minorities, usually Jews, murder children to use their blood in certain aspects of their religious rituals and holidays...
and said it was "the mainstreaming of the worst anti-Jewish stereotypes -- for instance, that Jews glory in the shedding of non-Jewish blood -- is upon us". Columnist Melanie Phillips
Melanie Phillips
Melanie Phillips is a British journalist and author. She began her career on the left of the political spectrum, writing for such publications as The Guardian and New Statesman. In the 1990s she moved to the right, and she now writes for the Daily Mail newspaper, covering political and social...
wrote that the play is "An open vilification of the Jewish people... drawing upon an atavistic hatred of the Jews” and called it an "open incitement to hatred”. Patrick Healy from The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
wrote that the play "at times paints heartless images of Israelis."
The Board of Deputies of British Jews
Board of Deputies of British Jews
The Board of Deputies of British Jews is the main representative body of British Jews. Founded in 1760 as a joint committee of the Sephardi and Ashkenazi Jewish communities in London, it has since become a widely recognised forum for the views of the different sectors of the UK Jewish...
, invited to preview the play, accused Churchill of being "Anti-Israel". Jonathan Hoffman, co-vice chairman of the Zionist Federation of Great Britain and Ireland
Zionist Federation of Great Britain and Ireland
The Zionist Federation of Great Britain and Ireland, also known as the British Zionist Federation or simply the Zionist Federation , was established in 1899 to campaign for a permanent homeland for the Jewish people...
, called the play "a libellous and despicable demonisation of Israeli parents and grandparents" and expressed fear that it would "stoke the fires of antisemitism". He added that the play is a modern blood libel
Blood libel
Blood libel is a false accusation or claim that religious minorities, usually Jews, murder children to use their blood in certain aspects of their religious rituals and holidays...
drawing on old anti-Semitic myths.
59 well-known British Jews published a letter published in the Daily Telegraph claiming that Seven Jewish Children reinforces "false stereotype
Stereotype
A stereotype is a popular belief about specific social groups or types of individuals. The concepts of "stereotype" and "prejudice" are often confused with many other different meanings...
s" and demonizing Israel for depicting Israelis as "inhuman triumphalists" who teach their children "Arabs must be hated", while it is "historically inaccurate" since it "fails to say that the Six Day War was a defensive war
Defensive war
A defensive war is one of the causes that justify war by the criteria of the Just War tradition. It means a war where at least one nation is mainly trying to defend itself from another, as opposed to a war where both sides are trying to invade and conquer each other.-Examples:* The Darius'...
" and it doesn't contain Israel's "withdrawal from Gaza in 2005" or "more than 6,000 rockets" launched by Hamas
Hamas
Hamas is the Palestinian Sunni Islamic or Islamist political party that governs the Gaza Strip. Hamas also has a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades...
indiscriminately. Signatories included Professor Geoffrey Alderman
Geoffrey Alderman
Geoffrey Alderman is a British historian, especially of the Jewish community in England in the 19th and 20th centuries, and also an academic, political adviser and award-winning journalist.-Life:...
, the Michael Gross Professor of Modern History at the University of Buckingham; Greville Janner, Baron Janner of Braunstone, the Labour peer and former president of the Board of Deputies; Maureen Lipman
Maureen Lipman
Maureen Diane Lipman CBE is a British film, theatre and television actress, columnist and comedienne.-Early life:Lipman was born in Hull in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, the daughter of Maurice Julius Lipman and Zelma Pearlman. Her father was a tailor; he used to have a shop between the...
, the actress; Ronald Harwood
Ronald Harwood
Sir Ronald Harwood CBE is an author, playwright and screenwriter. He is most noted for his plays for the British stage as well as the screenplays for The Dresser and The Pianist, for which he won the 2003 Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay...
, the Oscar-winning screenwriter; Tracy-Ann Oberman
Tracy-Ann Oberman
Tracy-Ann Oberman is an English television, theatre and radio actress, known for her role as Chrissie Watts in the BBC soap opera Eastenders...
, the actress who starred in EastEnders
EastEnders
EastEnders is a British television soap opera, first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 19 February 1985 and continuing to today. EastEnders storylines examine the domestic and professional lives of the people who live and work in the fictional London Borough of Walford in the East End...
.
Playwright Israel Horovitz
Israel Horovitz
Israel Horovitz is an American playwright and screenwriter.-Theatre career:An American dramatist, Horovitz has written more than 70 produced plays, many of which have been translated and performed in more than 30 languages worldwide . The 70/70 Horovitz Project was created by NYC Barefoot Theatre...
, who wrote a play in response to Churchill entitled What Strong Fences Make
What Strong Fences Make
-Mission:Horovitz told an interviewer that he wrote What Strong Fences Make because "another voice needed to be heard" in the wake of Caryl Churchill's play Seven Jewish Children, which he argues "offensive, distorted and manipulative"....
, argued that while it is possible to criticize Israel without being anti-Semitic and to criticize Palestine without being anti-Arab: "Those who criticize Jews in the name of criticizing Israel, as Ms. Churchill seems to have done in her play, step over an unacceptable boundary and must be taken to task."
Royal Court Theatre
John Nathan at The Jewish ChronicleThe Jewish Chronicle
The Jewish Chronicle is a London-based Jewish newspaper. Founded in 1841, it is the oldest continuously published Jewish newspaper in the world.-Publication data and readership figures:...
, though finding the play theatrically beautiful, criticized the play as anti-semitic and The Royal Court Theatre's artistic director, Dominic Cooke for not following, National Theatre
Royal National Theatre
The Royal National Theatre in London is one of the United Kingdom's two most prominent publicly funded theatre companies, alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company...
's director Nicholas Hytner
Nicholas Hytner
Sir Nicholas Robert Hytner is an English film and theatre producer and director. He has been the artistic director of London's National Theatre since 2003.-Biography:...
's policy that a play that is entirely populated by, and is critical of, a religious minority, can only be staged at the National Theatre if it is written by a member of that minority. Further criticism centered on Associate Director of the Royal Court Theatre, Ramin Gray
Ramin Gray
Ramin Gray is an English theatre director and one time associated director of the Royal Court Theatre, London. From an Iranian background Gray now does extensive work abroad but is still based in London...
's interview, in which he said that he [as a director] "would think twice" about staging a play "very critical of Islam, or [which] depicted Mohammed" since "given the times we're in" he would worry that if he "cause[d] offence then the whole enterprise would become buried in a sea of controversy" while the theatre did stage a play as Seven Jewish Children that is critical of some Israeli Jews and politics, Jonathan Romain
Jonathan Romain
Jonathan Anidjar Romain is a rabbi, writer and broadcaster, minister of Maidenhead Synagogue in Berkshire. He has a PhD in the history of British Jewry. He writes for The Times, The Guardian and The Jewish Chronicle and appears on radio or television...
argued that is because "fear".
The theatre admitted the play was critical of Israel but denied this meant that it was anti-Semitic against "some concerns". A spokesman argued "in keeping with its philosophy" the theatre presents "a multiplicity of viewpoints". He gave example of their 2 plays staged along Seven Jewish Children [at that time]: The Stone that "asks very difficult questions about the refusal of some modern Germans to accept their ancestors' complicity in Nazi atrocities" running before Seven Jewish Children with Shades "set in contemporary London which explores issues of tolerance in the Muslim community" staging at their smaller studio theatre. Spokesman said:
"We categorically reject that accusation and furthermore would urge people to see this play before they judge it. While Seven Jewish Children is undoubtedly critical of the policies of the state of Israel, there is no suggestion that this should be read as a criticism of Jewish people. It is possible to criticise the actions of Israel without being anti-Semitic."
Churchill's defence of the play
Writing in response to an article by Howard JacobsonHoward Jacobson
Howard Jacobson is a Man Booker Prize-winning British Jewish author and journalist. He is best known for writing comic novels that often revolve around the dilemmas of British Jewish characters.-Background:...
which sought to place Seven Jewish Children and other criticism of Israel in the context of a rise in anti-Semitism, Churchill defended herself: “Howard Jacobson writes as if there’s something new about describing critics of Israel as anti-Semitic. But it’s the usual tactic. We are not going to agree about politics … But we should be able to disagree without accusations of anti-Semitism." The play was about the difficulties of explaining violence to children. Its length meant favourable and unfavourable information about Israel had been omitted, she said.
Royal Court Theatre production
The cast for the play's premier production in February 2009 at London's Royal Court Theatre consisted of Ben Caplan, Jack Chissick, David HorovitchDavid Horovitch
David Horovitch is an English actor best known for playing the character of Inspector Slack in Miss Marple.-Life and career:...
, Daisy Lewis, Ruth Posner, Samuel Roukin
Samuel Roukin
Samuel Roukin is an English actor.Roukin was born in Southport, and currently lives in Kentish Town, North London. He displayed an interest in drama from an early age...
, Jennie Stoller, Susannah Wise
Susannah Wise
Susannah Walker Wise is an English television and stage actress. She trained as an actress at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, graduating in 1995. She is best known for her work in the British soap opera Eastenders and the Channel 4 comedy Peep Show...
, and Alexis Zegerman
Alexis Zegerman
-Background and career:She grew up in London and trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama.-Film and TV actress:She is probably most famous as Zoe, Poppy's best friend and roommate, in Oscar-nominated Mike Leigh's comedy-drama film Happy-Go-Lucky for which she won a British Independent Film...
. Susannah Tarbush argued "that most, if not all, the actors are Jewish." The play was directed by Dominic Cooke
Dominic Cooke
Dominic Cooke is an English theatre director and playwright. He won the 2007 Laurence Olivier Award for best director for his revival of The Crucible while working at the RSC...
who is Jewish himself. Some of the original cast gave a performance of the play introduced by Churchill herself as part of the Two Plays for Gaza fund-raising event at the Hackney Empire
Hackney Empire
The Hackney Empire is a theatre on Mare Street, in the London Borough of Hackney, built in 1901 as a music hall.-History:Hackney Empire is a grade II* listed building...
on 21 May 2009.
At the Royal Court the play was staged following Marius von Mayenburg
Marius von Mayenburg
Marius von Mayenburg is a German playwright, translator, and also instructor.In 1994, Mayenburg began his studies at Hochschule der Künste in Berlin. His first play, Haarmann, was first performed at Baracke in 1996.Fireface , written in 1997, was his breakthrough as a dramatist...
’s The Stone, a play about a German family who live in a house taken from vanished Jews and who grapple with the Nazi past of their family and nation.
Other productions
A copy of the play was sent to the BBCBBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
. Jeremy Howe, the commissioning drama editor for Radio 4
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
, said that both he and Mark Damazer
Mark Damazer
Mark Damazer CBE is the Master of St Peter's College, Oxford, and a former controller of BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio 7 in the United Kingdom.He is the son of a Polish-Jewish delicatessen owner in Willesden in North London....
, the channel's controller, considered the play a "brilliant piece", but agreed that it could not be broadcast because of the BBC's policy of editorial impartiality.
The first staged reading of the play in New York City took place on 16 March 2009 at the Brecht Forum and featured Broadway actress Kathleen Chalfant. http://brechtforum.org/events/seven-jewish-children
A rehearsed reading took place at the State Library of Victoria
State Library of Victoria
The State Library of Victoria is the central library of the state of Victoria, Australia, located in Melbourne. It is on the block bounded by Swanston, La Trobe, Russell, and Little Lonsdale streets, in the northern centre of the central business district...
in Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
on 18 May 2009 at a fund-raising event for Australians for Palestine. As a result of her participation, the Jewish actress Miriam Margoyles had an invitation withdrawn to perform in front of residents at a home run by the Australian Jewish Care.
A Hebrew translation of the play was staged in Tel-Aviv on 11 June 2009. It was directed online via Skype and video by Samieh Jabbarin, who has been under house arrest for four months. The play was also performed at the American University in Cairo
American University in Cairo
The American University in Cairo is an independent, non-profit, apolitical, secular institution of higher learning located in Cairo, Egypt...
, Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
, directed by a Palestinian student as part of an advanced directing class.
In May 2009, the city of Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
withdrew public funding from a theatre festival that had scheduled Seven Jewish Children after the producers refused to also perform another play, Seven Other Children
Seven Other Children
Seven Other Children is a 2009 play by Richard Stirling.The play premiered at the New End Theatre, Hampstead, London in May, 2009.-Mission:Stirling penned the play as a response to Caryl Churchill's controversial play Seven Jewish Children at the Royal Court Theatre...
by Richard Stirling of Evergreen Theatrical Productions. Development coordinator for the festival Madeline Heneghan remarked that since "The program is planned months in advance." the request was "unrealistic at this point".
The Rude Guerrilla Theatre Co. of Orange County
Orange County, California
Orange County is a county in the U.S. state of California. Its county seat is Santa Ana. As of the 2010 census, its population was 3,010,232, up from 2,846,293 at the 2000 census, making it the third most populous county in California, behind Los Angeles County and San Diego County...
, California, announced that it will be producing the play. The New York Theater Workshop and the Public Theater are said to be considering a New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
production. Both of them have performed plays by Churchill before.
Canadian group Independent Jewish Voices sponsored the play's Canadian premiere in Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
with 3 performances.
Gustavus Adolphus College
Gustavus Adolphus College
Gustavus Adolphus College is a private liberal arts college affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America located in St. Peter, Minnesota, United States. A coeducational, four-year, residential institution, it was founded in 1862 by Swedish Americans. To this day the school is firmly...
ran the show for 2 weekends from 30 October 2009 to 7 November 2009. It was performed after another one of Caryl Churchill
Caryl Churchill
Caryl Churchill is an English dramatist known for her use of non-naturalistic techniques and feminist themes, the abuses of power, and sexual politics. She is acknowledged as a major playwright in the English language and a leading female writer...
's plays Far Away (play)
Far Away (play)
Far Away is a 2000 play by British playwright Caryl Churchill. The play has four characters: Harper, Young Joan, Joan, and Todd and is based on the premise of a world in which everything in nature is at war. It is published by Nick Hern Books-Plot summary:...
, as well as a response to this play called Seven Palestinian Children by Deb Margolin
Deb Margolin
Deb Margolin is an American performance artist and playwright. Coming to prominence in the 1980s in the feminist political theatre troupe Split Britches , Margolin has since made a string of one-woman shows. A compilation of her texts, Of All The Nerve: Deb Margolin SOLO, was published in 1999 by...
.
On 30 November 2009, the play was performed in the Lebanese American University in Beirut, Lebanon. The play was staged by a Lebanese student, Fuad Halwani as part of a Play Production course. Due to its success the play was performed again twice in the university campus, once on 26 March in celebration of World Theatre Day and again on 21 April as part of an Arab Popular Culture seminar. The play also participated and was performed in the University Theatre Festival in Fes, Morocco in April 2010.
Plays produced in response
On 25 March 2009 Theater JTheater J
Theater J is a professional theater company located in Washington, DC, founded to present works that "celebrate the distinctive urban voice and social vision that are part of the Jewish cultural legacy" as a self-mission.-Organization:...
and Forum Theater in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, followed their readings with a reading of Seven Palestinian Children a response by Deb Margolin
Deb Margolin
Deb Margolin is an American performance artist and playwright. Coming to prominence in the 1980s in the feminist political theatre troupe Split Britches , Margolin has since made a string of one-woman shows. A compilation of her texts, Of All The Nerve: Deb Margolin SOLO, was published in 1999 by...
; the script is available online. The performance also included a reading of "The Eighth Child" by Robbie Gringras
Robbie Gringras
Robbie Gringras is an Israeli theater artist.Robbie is a motivational speaker who performs internationally as far as Australia, Germany, Hong Kong, USA, and Israel...
.
London's New End Theatre
New End Theatre
The New End Theatre, Hampstead, was a 80-seat fringe theatre venue in London, England, located in the London Borough of Camden which operated from 1974 until 2011. It was listed widely on the internet, including with the New York Times....
produced Seven Other Children
Seven Other Children
Seven Other Children is a 2009 play by Richard Stirling.The play premiered at the New End Theatre, Hampstead, London in May, 2009.-Mission:Stirling penned the play as a response to Caryl Churchill's controversial play Seven Jewish Children at the Royal Court Theatre...
, a new play by Richard Stirling.
The New York playwright
Playwright
A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...
Israel Horovitz
Israel Horovitz
Israel Horovitz is an American playwright and screenwriter.-Theatre career:An American dramatist, Horovitz has written more than 70 produced plays, many of which have been translated and performed in more than 30 languages worldwide . The 70/70 Horovitz Project was created by NYC Barefoot Theatre...
wrote a new short play entitled What Strong Fences Make
What Strong Fences Make
-Mission:Horovitz told an interviewer that he wrote What Strong Fences Make because "another voice needed to be heard" in the wake of Caryl Churchill's play Seven Jewish Children, which he argues "offensive, distorted and manipulative"....
, arguing "another voice needed to be heard" against Churchill's play, that he claims as "offensive, distorted and manipulative". Horovitz has offered to allow any theatre that wishes to produce What Strong Fences Make free of royalties
Royalties
Royalties are usage-based payments made by one party to another for the right to ongoing use of an asset, sometimes an intellectual property...
, as long as a collection is taken up following all performances for the benefit of ONE Family Fund
ONE Family Fund
ONE Family Fund is an Israel based philanthropic organization that helps victims of terror through networking and monetary donations. -Foundation:...
, a charity that assists children wounded in attacks on Israel.
See also
- International reaction to the 2008–2009 Israel–Gaza conflictInternational reaction to the 2008–2009 Israel–Gaza conflictInternational reaction to the Gaza War came from many countries and international organisations. International reaction to the conflict was also notable in the level of civilian demonstrations all around the world, which in many cases displayed sentiment significantly different from the official...
- My Name Is Rachel CorrieMy Name Is Rachel CorrieMy Name is Rachel Corrie is a play based on the diaries and emails of Rachel Corrie, edited by Alan Rickman, who directed it, and journalist Katharine Viner. Rachel Aliene Corrie was an American Evergreen State College student and member of the International Solidarity Movement who traveled to...
External links
- Seven Jewish Childrens complete video production, of the play by Jennie Stoller, The Guardian (10 minutes)
- Seven Jewish Children's full script, The New York TimesThe New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
. - Is a Play About Gaza Anti-Semitic? Read the Script. by Robert Mackey NY Times
- Russian productions British Council
- Theatre and politics, Socialist ReviewSocialist ReviewThe Socialist Review is the monthly magazine of the British Socialist Workers Party. As well as being printed it is also published online.-Original publication: 1950-1962:...
, Paul O'Brien, May 2009