{"id":90688,"date":"2021-12-04T17:00:53","date_gmt":"2021-12-04T15:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=90688"},"modified":"2021-11-30T16:19:59","modified_gmt":"2021-11-30T14:19:59","slug":"14-00-67","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=90688","title":{"rendered":"London Theater Apologizes, Changes \u2018Jewish\u2019 Name of Billionaire Character After Accusations of Stereotyping"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>London Theater Apologizes, Changes \u2018Jewish\u2019 Name of Billionaire Character After Accusations of Stereotyping<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/h5>\n

Shiryn Ghermezian<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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The Royal Court Theatre in London. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

The popular Royal Court Theatre in London apologized twice after it was accused of Jewish stereotyping and perpetuating antisemitism through the lead character in its new play.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cRare Earth Mettle,\u201d authored by British playwright Al Smith, features a fictional Silicon Valley billionaire and Edison Motors CEO named Hershel Fink who wants to \u201csave the world\u201d by building affordable electric cars. The show opens on Wednesday and has been promoted as a \u201cbrutally comic exploration of risk, delusion and power spanning Bolivia, the US and the UK.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

After receiving angry complaints about giving the Elon Musk-inspired character a Jewish-sounding name, the theater apologized<\/a> <\/strong><\/span>on Saturday and said Smith has since renamed the character Henry Finn. The incident is \u201can example of unconscious bias and we will reflect deeply on how this has happened in the coming days,\u201d Royal Court explained. \u201cWe and the writer are deeply sorry for the harm caused.\u201d The theater also clarified that the character is not Jewish and is not referred to as such in the show.<\/span><\/p>\n

Musk, the South Africa-born billionaire founder of the electric auto company Tesla, is not Jewish.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Royal Court Theatre apologizes unreservedly for this situation. It was a mistake, it shouldn\u2019t have happened, and we are sorry it did,\u201d it said in a second statement<\/a> on its website on Saturday. \u201cWe stand in solidarity with our Jewish staff, artists, audiences and friends and are grateful to those who got in touch to communicate that the character named Hershel Fink was perpetuating an antisemitic stereotype.\u201d The character\u2019s new name \u201cwill be effective from the first performances next week, and we shall reprint all communications and the play text with this change,\u201d the statement continued.<\/span><\/p>\n

The theater said it is \u201clooking towards the dialogue that will help us reflect on the process that enabled the name to remain,\u201d and how it could \u201chave mitigated this unnecessary harm.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cJews Don\u2019t Count\u201d author and comedian David Baddiel was among those who criticized the theater over the incident. \u201cThe Royal Court claims they didn\u2019t realize \u2018Hershel Fink\u2019 was a Jewish name,\u201d he posted<\/a> on Twitter. \u201cHmmm. Somehow it just sounded so right for a world-conquering billionaire.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Actress Olivia Mace concurred that a character with that name \u201cresembles a negative Jewish stereotype.\u201d London-based theater director and producer Adam Lenson accused<\/a> the theater of \u201csystematic racism\u201d and tweeted<\/a>, \u201cCasually making a Silicon Valley billionaire Jewish perpetuates antisemitic stereotypes and will cause ideological harm.\u201d He described Royal Court\u2019s two apologizes as rushed and \u201cunacceptable,\u201d and on Sunday told the theater, \u201cQuick and dishonest responses only keep the fire burning.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cApologies mean nothing without context and transparency and honesty,\u201d he added in a series of tweets. \u201cI would have preferred them to act a bit slower and apologize properly. The need to airfreshen their PR and convince everyone its handled quickly is as much a mistake as the initial mistake.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In April, Royal Court announced<\/a> a two-year partnership with the London-based charity Sour Lemons that will examine how the theater\u2019s \u201cinternal structures\u201d promote systemic racism and \u201ccreate barriers for underrepresented communities.\u201d Sour Lemons said<\/a> in an \u201cinterim response\u201d to the latest controversy that it is \u201csorry and sad\u201d to hear about the incident, and stands in solidarity with the Jewish community.<\/span><\/p>\n

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London Theater Apologizes, Changes \u2018Jewish\u2019 Name of Billionaire Character After Accusations of Stereotyping Shiryn Ghermezian The Royal Court Theatre in London. Photo: Wikimedia Commons. The popular Royal Court Theatre in London apologized twice after it was accused of Jewish stereotyping and perpetuating antisemitism through the lead character in its new play. \u201cRare Earth Mettle,\u201d authored […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[26,24],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90688"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=90688"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90688\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":90835,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90688\/revisions\/90835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=90688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=90688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=90688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}