Jews stand with Hindus on Ganesh vs. Hitler play in Melbourne Festival
NEVADA: The Jews have supported the Hindus on their concerns about " Ganesh versus the Third Reich" play premiering at Melbourne Festival in Australia on September 29.
Rabbi ElizaBeth W. Beyer, prominent Jewish leader in Nevada (USA), in a statement on Thursday, said that although she valued freedom of expression, especially in the arts, it was unnecessary dragging into the Third Reich of a deity who was highly revered by our Hindu brothers and sisters.
Such trivialization of Lord Ganesh, whom Hindus worshipped, would naturally hurt the faithful, and must be avoided, Rabbi Beyer added.
'Meanwhile, Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, who spearheaded the issue, in a statement in USA on Thursday, said that the play producer/director and Melbourne Festival managers should make sure that Lord Ganesh was not made a laughing stock in the process of pushing their respective agendas.
Zed, who is president of Universal Society of Hinduism, pointed out that besides Festival managers; Australia Council for the Arts, Arts Victoria, and City of Melbourne; who supported this play; should also look at the play before it premiered on September 29 so that there was nothing hurtful to the feeling of devotees.
He has earlier argued that Lord Ganesh was divine and theater/film/art were welcome to create projects about/around him showing his true depiction as mentioned in the scriptures. Creating irrelevant imaginary imagery, like reportedly depicting him being tortured and interrogated by Nazi SS, hurt the devotees.
Its creator, internationally acclaimed "Back to Back Theatre", itself calls it a "strange" fable, "rambunctious". Describing the play, media release of co-presenter Malthouse Theatre says that Ganesh "seeks to go one-on-one with Hitler". It is also described by some as "wildly inventive ride through history, where sacred icons and rituals become weapons" and "brimming with humour".