Alliance for Jewish Theatre

Katherine Farley, Chairman of the Board, Lincoln Center
Debora L. Spar, President, Lincoln Center
Nigel Redden, Director, Lincoln Center Festival

Dear Ms. Farley, Ms. Spar, and Mr. Redden,

The Alliance for Jewish Theatre (AJT), a United States-based organization that networks with
Jewish theatre makers worldwide, wholeheartedly supports Lincoln Center Festival for rejecting calls to cancel Israel’s Ha’Bima National Theatre and The Cameri Theatre of Tel Aviv’s stage adaptation of David Grossman’s To the End of the Land. In this way we join with the Dramatists Legal Defense Fund, the National Coalition Against Censorship and the Creative Community for Peace.

You have eloquently written, “As a cultural and education organization, however, we do not make political statements and hope that the art we present can stand on its own.” and one of AJT’s core values is “Building bridges between theatre-artists, theatres, and the communities they serve.” Together these two statements show the need for theatre in an all too fractured world.

Thank you for exemplifying these values through the work you present, for your belief in the arts and artists who create work, and for taking a principled stand against censorship, national origin discrimination, and for standing up for free speech and the free exchange of ideas.

It is precisely this type of globe-spanning programming – embodied by Lincoln Center Festival 2017 bringing works by Syrian, Russian, Israeli and Palestinian artists together, among many others – that gives us hope for peace in these troubling times.

Wishing you much success with the Festival.

Sincerely,

David Y. Chack           Hank Kimmel        Yoni Oppenheim            Jordana Halpern
Executive Director      President              Treasurer                       Secretary/Communications