The Ring of Myths The Israelis, Wagner and the Nazis
Na'ama Sheffi
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“Sheffi concludes that the choice of Wagner as the target for all their abhorrance of Nazism and the Holocaust ‘both sins against the man and obscures the significance of the Holocaust’.” Choice
“Does an excellent job of showing the historical evolution of the debate, and linking this to the political and ideological evolution of the State of Israel.” H-Net; H-Genocide
“The reception of German culture in general and Wagner’s music in particular is traced to show how the taboo developed alongside the collective memory of the Holocaust... For Sheffi, the dilemma around Wagner reflects the situation of the state of Israel as a whole... She takes the musical debate... and uses it as a mirror to reflect Israeli society today. [The book] shows a profound understanding of how Israeli society emerged and how it functions today.” The Jewish Quarterly Review
This book examines the Israeli attitude towards Wagner in light of remembrance of the Holocaust and the shape of the new Israeli national identity. To many in Israel, Richard Wagner is a symbol of the concentration camps, or at least of a fierce sociopolitical controversy. Although the cancellation of a performance of the prelude to Wagner’s Meistersinger von Nürnberg in 1938 was simply an impetuous response to the events of Kristallnacht in Nazi Germany, over the years this incident became part of a wider pattern as the Wagner boycott was extended to other composers suspected of collaborating with the Nazis.
