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REICHLIN, Saul Failure to Restore the Nestroyhof is Unjust
I have learned of the struggle by the Jewish Theatre of Austria to restore the famous Vienna Nestroyhof, architectural masterpiece, and in its day, one of the most revered cultural venues in the world of the Jewish people, to its rightful former status as international stage, and centre of creativity and excellence, ended by the Nazi terror. It is amazing to me, and I am appalled to discover that the Cultural Councilor (Kulturstadtrat) of Vienna, Herr Dr. Andreas Mailath-Pokorny, refuses to support this venture, claiming financial reasons. To now portray affluent Austria as being unable to afford this restoration shows an official disregard, if not contempt, for the fallout of the Nazi evil, the most sickening atrocity known to mankind, of which, it appears, Dr. Mailath-Pokorny needs to be reminded. Besides my professional interest in the theatre, my feelings for the Nestroyhof folIow from my having dedicated myself, through my work, to the restoration of cultural tolerance between Jews and non-Jews, to the extent that my company has been nominated in the U.K. for a prestigious multi-cultural award, The EMMA - Ethnic and Multi-Cultural Media Award. Indeed, my production is now booked by Christian charities in the U.K. and the U.S.A. as a fundraiser. The work is my adaptation for the stage of the stories of celebrated Jewish writer, Sholom Aleichem, who wrote his comedies of life at the time of the fin de siecle Russian massacre of the Jews. This is the time, now that the world is entering a new and extremely dangerous phase of religious and cultural intolerance and suspicion, for Austria to show its character, and as Vaclav Havel has done in the Czech Republic, demonstrate that the (now microscopic) Jewish community is an integral and valued part of Austrian society. Failure to restore the great Nestroyhof centre is to decide not to do so. Such a failure of natural justice is to compound past crimes, and whether by accident or design, to play into the hands of, and reward the sinister, poisonous, anti-Jewish movements on the move again in Europe and beyond. Saul Reichlin, Artistic Director, Lone Star Theatre Co., London 2004-04-29
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