Thursday, July 19, 2012

“I Am, When I Think Of Znaider, Ashamed To Be A Jew”

[Nikolaj] Znaider will appear in Venezuela with BOTH ensembles Chavez showcases.

Chavez sends both ensembles on frequent foreign tours as cultural exports for his regime. Very troubling is that one of the concerts Znaider will play in Caracas is a BENEFIT CONCERT. To the best of my knowledge, Znaider has NEVER appeared in a single benefit concert in Israel, on behalf of any charity, despite well over a dozen engagements by the Israel Philharmonic since 1997.

Znaider is allowing himself to be used as a propaganda tool by a regime that is actively working toward Israel’s demise.

I hasten to add that the youth orchestra movement in Venezuela was never used as a propaganda tool by previous Venezuela governments. The maneuver is a Chavez invention.

Is Znaider insane? Immoral? Dumber than stone? Whatever the answer, Znaider has fatal character flaws.

It makes me question whether Znaider is functionally literate.

Does Znaider read magazines and newspapers? Amnesty International reports? Anti-Defamation League issuances? Simon Wiesenthal Institute announcements?

Human Rights Watch issued a new report two days ago. It was widely covered in the press in Europe and North America. It pointed out that the Venezuelan press and judiciary had lost further independence and had become further corrupted over the last four years, that democratic processes and organizations continued to disappear or become disabled, and that violations of human rights had reached near-epidemic proportions.

Things will only become worse if Chavez wins the upcoming election to become president for life, an election Chavez will surely win because the voters are too afraid to support and vote for anyone else.

Apparently Znaider does not care about any of this.

Apparently Znaider is uninterested that synagogues in Venezuela have been defaced. Apparently Znaider is unmoved that there is an ongoing Diaspora from Venezuela. Apparently Znaider is indifferent to the anti-Semitic rhetoric that has become a staple of the Chavez system. Apparently Znaider is unconcerned about the fate of Jewish residents of the nation, all of whom are suffering, fearful to raise their voices and terrified to be seen as anti-Chavez.

I am, when I think of Znaider, ashamed to be a Jew.

Damn the man.

An eloquent comment from earlier today, originating—according to sitemeter—at the Wiesenthal Institute in Vienna, Austria.
Posted by at
Labels:

8 comments:

  1. WilliamJuly 21, 2012 at 12:46 PM

    Thank you for posting this.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousJuly 24, 2012 at 10:49 AM

    It is appropriate to criticize Nikolaj Znaider, a Jew, for playing in Venezuela. Very few Jewish musicians will consent to play in Venezuela, and those that do invariably are very minor artists.

    However, it is also necessary to note that Znaider is not a bright or sophisticated person. He’s a notable lightweight upstairs and has never demonstrated good judgment in the management of his career or personal affairs.

    It is fitting that other violinists are playing at the most prestigious European summer festivals while Znaider, to get a summer engagement, has to truck all the way over to South America to play with student orchestras.

    That Znaider is playing in Venezuela with student orchestras in the month of July says a great deal about the state of his career.

    That he is playing in Venezuela at all says much about his mental acuity.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AkkordiJuly 28, 2012 at 5:57 PM

    Honesty is the best policy. Perhaps the dumbest brain ‘to think & count’ since his involvement in Jerusalem.

    ‘I was happy with Maestro Mehta but received the worst review. What should I do?’ or ‘Should I put Jerusalem Festival in my professional resume this year or not?’ or ‘Should I volunteer for Barenboim’s Divan concert? I am enough famed, aren’t I?’ or ‘Bashkirova sticks around Michael Barenboim. Should I stick around Daniel Barenboim?’ or ‘I want to grow into a real jewel under Barenboim’s fame’ and so on… What a bitch Znaider is.

    Is this violinist an Israeli or a Palestinian? Thanks to this limited talent with rotten snake-like eyes and its trashy, arrogant big-mouth, he lost his golden sound. . . he is now nothing but a second-rate orchestra violin.

    Please imagine this pig’s behaviors in Israel. After that, this Jewish guy was not able to find his place in Israel and had to leave.

    ReplyDelete
  4. DavidAugust 5, 2012 at 8:11 PM

    Nikolaj Znaider has no love for Israel other than the monetary benefit conferred on him by playing here (the Israel Philharmonic and the fees it pays him). Znaider’s main interest is money. Nothing else motivates him.

    Znaider is Jewish only when there is a financial incentive for him to be Jewish. If there is money to be made by being Jewish, Znaider is Jewish all the way. If there is no monetary advantage to being Jewish, Znaider is not Jewish at all. Why do you think he changed his name from Szeps-Znaider to Znaider?

    The Israel Philharmonic has supported Znaider loyally for fifteen years, offering him far more engagements than his talent warrants. This loyalty is a one-way street for Znaider. The Israel Philharmonic interests him only insofar as he can make money off the orchestra and advance his career. Znaider otherwise could care less if the Israel Philharmonic were wiped off the face of the earth tomorrow.

    Znaider tried living in Israel. It didn’t work out for him. People didn’t like him. He didn’t make friends. The only people willing to hang around him were the types that were hoping to make money off him. Znaider is not the sort of person who makes friends—or keeps them. I cannot begin to tell you about the well-known Israel musicians who will have nothing to do with Znaider, starting with several of our most renowned pianists and string players. Ah, the stories I could tell (and the pictures I could send) . . .

    Znaider would play in any totalitarian state if it were profitable for him (Dubai, anyone?). For a vain, immoral person like Znaider, it would be no big deal to play in a country with an anti-Semitic government that has publicly pledged to support Israel’s destruction—as long as Znaider was being paid. Znaider would have played in the death camps while watching his relatives being marched into the gas chambers if the fees had been assured.

    And, for symbolic purposes, that is precisely what Znaider did when playing a benefit concert in Venezuela for a charity important to Hugo Chavez—and doing so while Iran, Venezuela’s ally, carried out a terrorist attack against innocent Israeli women and children vacationing in Bulgaria. No doubt the Bulgaria incident barely registered with the vain and self-obsessed Znaider.

    In the Cold War era, Znaider would have been called “A Useful Idiot”, the term invented by the Russians for dupes in the West. And Znaider is a dupe. He is “A Useful Idiot”: he is vain, selfish, without education, without intelligence, without judgment, without character, without scruples, interested purely and solely in his own pleasure and indulgence—and capable of causing immeasurable harm by his thoughtless actions.

    So Zubin Mehta and the Israel Philharmonic will continue to humor Znaider, engaging him to play the same handful of concertos over and over, played more poorly each return visit. Znaider will collect the money, the Israel Philharmonic will have done the honorable thing by engaging a Jewish artist, and the audience will hear Znaider scratch his way for the umpteenth time in Tel Aviv through yet another concerto he has already played 7000 times but will never master (this year, the Brahms).

    As for me . . .

    I won’t be there.

    David

    ReplyDelete
  5. WilliamAugust 6, 2012 at 4:05 PM

    Bravo, Daniel!

    ReplyDelete
  6. AnonymousAugust 7, 2012 at 10:33 PM

    Joshua Adams: I left this same comment on your new post about Znaider, but I want to leave it here, too, so that Daniel sees it.

    Daniel, you have SO described the Nikolaj Znaider I know.

    Vain, vain, vain, vain, vain, vain, VAIN.

    Money, money, money, money, money, money, MONEY.

    And no, Znaider certainly does not make or keep friends. Most people who suffer from extreme vanity are friendless. They have “friends for hire”, but not real friends, and that is the situation in which Znaider finds himself.

    ReplyDelete
  7. AkkordiAugust 9, 2012 at 6:42 AM

    That’s exactly what I said.

    ‘Please imagine this pig’s behaviors in Israel. After that, this Jewish guy was not able to find his place in Israel and had to leave.’

    ReplyDelete
  8. JoelSeptember 21, 2012 at 5:27 PM

    Znaider=typical self-hating Jew. His sister is the same way. It’s the family business.

    ReplyDelete