NYC theaters exhale Jewish stories in reflection of growing antisemitism

On Tuesday night, Parade opened on Broadway to begin its previews at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre and – unlike a typical Broadway opening – opening night was met by neo-Nazi protesters heckling audience members in line with posters. They read “Leo Frankly was a pedo/ADL” and the protesters also handed out flyers to promote their webpage decorated with swastikas.

Led by Jewish actors Ben Platt and Michaela Diamond, Parade is set in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1913 telling the devastating life story of Leo Frank, a Brooklyn-born Jewish American man who is unjustly convicted of the rape and murder of his thirteen-year-old employee, Mary Phagan.

His trial, which lacked evidence and was made up solely of false testimonies, sentenced Frank to life in prison, but he did not live to serve his sentence. Instead, Frank was lynched and hung at Phagan’s family home. From his story, and others like it was born the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), and so was the revival of the Ku Klux Klan in the region.

It is fitting then, that 110 years later, neo-Nazis would join opening night to boycott a show exposing Frank’s innocence and murder. In a video shared by an audience member in line, you can see neo-Nazis telling everyone in line that they were romanticizing pedophiles and that they should leave the show and learn the “truth” about the ADL instead –an organization, as well as all Jews – that should be eradicated through any means necessary, as they view it.

The open display of genocidal ideology evidences the reality of antisemitism in America. Frank’s story holds an everlasting importance, which reflects itself in modern history through the growing persecution of American Jews across the United States.

NYC's Jewish community

New York City is the home of approximately 1.6 million Jews, making it the second-largest concentrated Jewish population in the world, and the first outside of the State of Israel. Yet, the city has continuously failed to protect its community – with the audience and actors of Parade being the latest target. Contrary to the neo-Nazi efforts and aspirations, the show carried on as predicted garnering raving reviews.

In a reflection of growing anti-Jewish hatred, New York is now seeing a resurgence of Jewish stories in its theaters. A few blocks below the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre where Parade successfully begins its run is the acclaimed adaptation of Tom Stoppard’s book Leopoldstadt.

It follows the story of a Jewish family who lands in the Jewish quarter of Vienna after fleeing from pogroms through five decades of history as they resist the threat of assimilation, deportation and genocide. Beyond the two long-running plays, a limited run of a Yiddish production of Fiddler on the Roof ran for seven weeks off-Broadway.

It is telling that as antisemitism grows in New York, so does the telling of Jewish stories and art. Resistance is to demand attention – to speak louder against those who wish to silence us. Productions like Fiddler on the Roof, Parade and Leopoldstadt have and will continue to pass on the legacy of Leo Frank and world Jewry paving the way for this urgently needed, characteristically and unapologetic Jewish theater renaissance.

The writer holds an MA from Reichman University and is a research and programming coordinator at the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy.