(Aug. 24, 2026 \/ JNS)\n <\/p>\n
A Brooklyn Jewish mom expected an entertaining outing when she took her 4-year-old to a recent puppet festival. Instead, she found herself and her son listening to a recitation of Israel\u2019s \u201cwar crimes\u201d and keffiyah-clad performers taking part in a Gaza flotilla during a show billed as being about the quirks of living in New York City.<\/p>\n
The performances were part of International Puppet Fringe Festival NYC, which is partially funded by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and New York State Council on the Arts, and took place in lower Manhattan from Aug. 12 to 16.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey started with relatable New York skits, like about the pizza rat,\u201d the mom, who declined to be named \u201cbecause of the current environment,\u201d told JNS, of a viral video of a rat dragging a discarded slice of pizza in a city subway station.<\/p>\n
Another skit was about the perils of parking on New York City streets. \u201cPerformers had a cardboard car and showed the parallel parking shuffle,\u201d when street cleaning rules require drivers to move their cars from one side of residential streets to the other, the mom said.<\/p>\n
During the city-themed parts, the mom, who came to the United States from the former Soviet Union as a 7-year-old, told JNS that she \u201cand the audience were one.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone liked it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
After about 15 minutes, \u201ca woman came in with a piece of paper and began reading a litany of accusations against Israel, and people began chanting \u2018shame, shame,\u2019\u201d she told JNS.<\/p>\n
Soon after that, eight performers grouped as a flotilla of ships bound for Gaza, the mother said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt felt like a lynch mob,\u201d she told JNS. (JNS sought comment from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.)<\/p>\n
\u201cYou feel naked, because you realize all these people knew who I was,\u201d she said, since she didn\u2019t join in the chant. \u201cIf I was by myself I would have just made an exit, but I was with my family and had a bunch of belongings.\u201d<\/p>\n
The experience was \u201cpretty nauseating\u201d for the mom.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m an immigrant from the former Soviet Union, so antisemitism is why I\u2019m here in the first place,\u201d she told JNS. \u201cTo see it out in full effect in the daylight is awful.\u201d<\/p>\n
The mom shared a photo of part of the festival with JNS but said that she was too shaken to document the antisemitic parts.<\/p>\n
Boxcutter Collective, the puppetry troupe, was one of several dozen to appear at the 2026 Puppet Fringe Festival.<\/p>\n
On Facebook, the group described its performance as a \u201ccelebration of the place we all love and live in: New York City,\u201d with \u201cdancing skyscrapers, giant rats, fossil-fuel-fighting flowers, a live brass band and Lady Liberty herself.\u201d<\/p>\n
There was no mention of Israel or the Gaza war.<\/p>\n
Manuel Mor\u00e1n, founder and producer of International Puppet Fringe Festival NYC, told JNS that \u201ctheater and puppetry have always been political art forms.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEspecially in this moment, we believe there is value in making space for artists to express different perspectives and in encouraging audiences from all backgrounds to engage with the work,\u201d Mor\u00e1n said.<\/p>\n
Mor\u00e1n, who is also founder, CEO and artistic director of Teatro\/SEA, told JNS that festival organizers may not have been aware of the anti-Israel content before it was performed.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs with many festivals, the full content of a production is not always known in advance, and the company premiered many elements of this work as part of the event,\u201d he told JNS. \u201cWe stand behind our role in providing a platform for artists while recognizing that artists are responsible for their own work and should be able to speak to it directly.\u201d<\/p>\n
In late November 2023, not even two months after Oct. 7, Boxcutter Collective took part in a Brooklyn event called \u201cLet\u2019s stand together for the people in Gaza! Fundraiser and action the Gaza Monologues.\u201d<\/p>\n
The event took place on the \u201cinternational day of solidarity with the Palestinian people,\u201d which Boxcutter described as \u201ca significant day for those who value justice, equality and freedom for the Palestinian people.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAs an organization with deep roots in supporting marginalized artists and communities, we at Teatro SEA understand the impact of discrimination and rejection, and we do not support racism or hatred directed at any community,\u201d Moran told JNS.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the same time, we believe in artistic freedom and in creating a space where artists can present their work and audiences can encounter a range of perspectives,\u201d he said. \u201cWe do not believe in censorship in the arts.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also noted that a Jewish group performed at the festival.<\/p>\n
The Magid Ensemble performed \u201cShterna and the Lost Voice,\u201d described in the program as \u201can original tale developed through years of research on Yiddish (Eastern-European diasporic Jewish) folklore, and an original live klezmer score.\u201d<\/p>\n
An Israeli troupe, Tel Aviv-based Hanut Theater Company, was invited to participate in the puppet fringe festival but could not attend.<\/p>\n
Hanut leader Shachar Marom told JNS that the group could not arrange visas for artists to come to the United States, and the festival did not help facilitate them. Artists didn\u2019t want to risk being turned away at the border, Marom said.<\/p>\n
Moran, of the festival, told JNS that Hanut told the festival that it was advised by Israeli officials not to participate without extensive security protection.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Aug. 24, 2026 \/ JNS) A Brooklyn Jewish mom expected an entertaining outing when she took her 4-year-old…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":594852,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,46,43],"class_list":["post-594851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=594851"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594851\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/594852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=594851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=594851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=594851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}