Demonstrators protest Klinghoffer opera at Met season opening

Protesters calling for the Metropolitan Opera to cancel its production of “The Death of Klinghoffer” rallied outside the Met on its opening night Monday.

A coalition of groups in a statement called for the Monday afternoon protest at Lincoln Center, across from the Lincoln Center Plaza in Manhattan. Organizers say thousands are expected for the demonstration against a production that they contend promotes terrorism and anti-Semitism.

The opera depicting the 1985 murder by Palestinian terrorists of Leon Klinghoffer, a 69-year-old Jewish-American man in a wheelchair, is set to premiere in October.

“This sends a message to terrorists that you can do this kind of thing and you’re going to be presented in a glorified, sympathetic way,” Rabbi Avi Weiss said in an address to demonstrators, according to CBS. (** See editor’s note at the end of this article.)

“I mean, it’s absolutely insane to do this,” New York State Assemblyman Dov Hikind (D-Brooklyn) said, adding that he will try to cut funding to the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, which houses the Metropolitan Opera House.

Several high-profile participants were expected to join the protest, including former New York Gov. George Pataki and ex-US Attorney General Michael Mukasey.

The sponsoring organizations included the Simon Wiesenthal Center, Zionist Organization of America, Americans for a Safe Israel, AMCHA, the Catholic League, the Christians’ Israel Public Action Campaign, several New York congregations, One Israel Fund, StandWithUs, Strength to Strength and others.

A letter written by Judea Pearl, the father of journalist Daniel Pearl, who was kidnapped and murdered by militants in Pakistan in 2002, will also be read.

It reads, in part: “Choreographing an operatic drama around criminal pathology is not an artistic prerogative, but a blatant betrayal of public trust. We do not stage operas for rapists and child molesters, and we do not compose symphonies for penetrating the minds of ISIS [the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, also known as the Islamic State] executioners.”

(** Editor’s note: An earlier version of this article included a quotation incorrectly attributed to Rabbi Weiss. We apologize for the error.)