MLB takes heat from Jewish group for Roger Waters promotion
B’nai B’rith International calls on baseball league to stop sponsoring ticket sales for concerts of ‘an avowed anti-Semite’
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on Google
NEW YORK — Major League Baseball’s involvement in the sale of tickets for Roger Waters’ North American tour has been criticized by the leadership of the Jewish advocacy organization B’nai B’rith International.
Tickets went on sale this week for Waters’ “This is Not a Drill” tour, which currently is slated to start July 8 in Pittsburgh and end October 3 in Dallas. MLB.com is among the organizations sponsoring ticket presales.
B’nai B’rith President Charles O. Kaufman and CEO Daniel S. Mariaschin wrote a letter to baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred they released Thursday.
“Waters is an avowed anti-Semite whose views on Jews and Israel far exceed the boundaries of civil discourse,” they wrote, adding they were “saddened and outraged that baseball … would use its online resources to publicize an individual with an alarming history of anti-Semitic hatred. We call on MLB to cease providing Roger Waters a platform.”
MLB said the promotion was part of an ad buy by AEG/Concerts West for multiple concert tours and that the league will respond to B’nai B’rith privately. AEG and Waters’ spokeswoman, Fran Curtis, did not immediately return a requests for comment.
The Times of Israel Community.