La Rochelle – as part of a writing workshop, students at the University of La Rochelle wrote a comic play that was conceived in the eyes of some of the students as antisemitic. The President of the University refused to comment on this subject.
The President of the University, Gerard Blanchard, who did not know how and could not answer this question, finds himself today at the center of a bizzarre whirlwind.
The incident started at the beginning of April.
During a week of students’ theater that took place at the university, about twenty students from a variety of departments and levels read four plays to the audience at the Toujours a l’Horizon theater, located at La Rochelle. Prior to that they had participated in a writing workshop that was conducted by the Quebec-born writer Éric Noël, and wrote a play titled “Your children’s role in the global economic recovery”. This play, which was probably written for the purpose of entertainment, attempts to deplore the pursuit of globalization and the financial craze. It portrays an international company “Goldberg and co.” that gambles on newborn babies, and when these babies grow up and become adults they must yield profits to their parents and their investors. The “Goldberg and co.” people are cunning, obsessed with money and their image is not very different from the past unflattering image of the Jew. At a later stage of the play, a Nazi cook, who hides in a brothel, and two orthodox Jews called Cohen 1 and Cohen 2, enter the scene.
“Why is this obsession? You must know how to forgive” says one of the actors to the two Jews. At that moment he takes out bills of money and hands them over to them. With that the chase of the Nazi ends; one of the Jews, who was bought with money eventually even shakes the cook’s hand.
The play, which does not deal exclusively with Jews, was read to an audience of 500 people on the 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th of April and did not stir any uproar. But, one of the biochemistry lecturers, Michel Goldberg, denounced the antisemitic stereotypes conveyed in the text.
“I am in favor of freedom of expression, especially in the university”, he explained, “but, when I listened to the text I felt uncomfortable. Even if it was humoristic, it did not serve the freedom of thought, but rather raised old and dark ideas that were accepted about Jews and greed.”
Michel Goldberg set up and appointment with the President of the university, with whom he maintains friendly relations. He asked that a public discussion together with the students, the heads of the university and the theater directors be conducted. The discussion was held on May 2nd. “It does not look as if the students intended to be antisemitic. This is the important thing in my view” the president of the university, Gerard Blanchard, claims today. “They wanted to present a humoristic situation, a kind of satire.” The president, who admitted that the text is awkward in a way, refuses to denounce its content. However, he has banned its reading or showing within the university confines.
Michel Goldberg, a highly motivated person who does not shy away from fighting for his principles, has refused to let go of the case. As a son of underground fighters who received grateful recognition from Belgium, he does not intend to give up against words and principles. “Satire is not always perceived as such” he claims. Since then he has received a great number of support and encouragement messages along with a few vicious comments.
