The Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia (FJC) stood up for figure skater Tatyana Navka, whom many criticized after she appeared in the show " glacial period"On Channel One she performed a dance in which she portrayed a prisoner of a Nazi concentration camp
Global Look Press
The Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia (FEOR) stood up for figure skater Tatyana Navka, whom many criticized after she performed a dance in the show “Ice Age” on Channel One, in which she portrayed a prisoner of a Nazi concentration camp.
“The turn that the discussion of this performance has taken—an attempt to condemn it from ideological or moral positions—seems to me completely inappropriate, since addressing the topic of the Holocaust as such, especially with artistic comprehension, when the performers associate themselves with the victims, is worthy of all respect and gratitude.” , - said Borukh Gorin, head of the FEOR public relations department, to the Interfax-Religion portal on November 29.
In his opinion, works like Navka’s number “compensate for the historical injustice of uprooting the memory that people were exterminated precisely because they were Jews,” and “in this sense, this number is worthy of all praise.”
Gorin called all condemning reactions to the number performed by the wife of Russian Presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov “catastrophically exaggerated.” He believes that discussion of this dance is possible only on stage, as a cultural event. "To say in 2016 whether it is worth creating a Holocaust theme various kinds works, it’s the same as arguing whether wind is needed,” Gorin added.
A day earlier, the chairman of the Council of Rabbis of Europe and the chief rabbi of Moscow, Pinchas Goldschmidt, expressed the opinion that the authors of this dance should have consulted with the relatives of prisoners of Nazi concentration camps before staging a dance related to the Holocaust.
“Many people liked it, but the dance hurt many,” he noted in a commentary to TASS. “The Holocaust and everything connected with it is too big a wound. It will not heal soon. Almost no Jewish families, in which none of the ancestors would have suffered from Nazism, would not have worn yellow stars, like on figure skaters’ costumes.”
"I would like to believe that the dance directors wanted to convey the will to live and best hopes concentration camp prisoners,” Goldschmidt added. - Probably, the intentions were good, but every nation has its own pain, and we must try not to touch a nerve. I wouldn’t like to see anti-Semitism here.”
Earlier, the president of the Holocaust Foundation, Alla Gerber, commenting on the angry reviews of this issue, urged not to perceive the situation so unambiguously. In her words, “The Holocaust is not only destruction, it is colossal resistance, resistance of the spirit, resistance of human qualities, resistance of human dignity.” "If this Holocaust dance had all of that, then I don't see anything wrong with it," Gerber said.
The motives of the Holocaust are not for show, the Israeli Minister of Culture is sure
The number performed by Navka and her partner Andrei Burkovsky caused a very mixed reaction in in social networks and media. Many considered it inappropriate to show a Holocaust-themed number on an entertainment television show. Others objected: the Holocaust can be discussed in the language of dance, including ice dancing; it is important that the topic of the catastrophe of European Jewry is raised in Russian television, writes NEWSru Israel.
Many Western media published very critical notes about this dance. “Holocaust motives are not for parties, not for dancing and not for reality (shows),” The New York Times quotes Israeli Minister of Culture and Sports Miri Regev. “Not a single person out of the six million (Jews who died during the Holocaust) danced, and a concentration camp is not a summer camp.”
Yohanan Petrovsky-Stern, a professor of Jewish studies at Northwestern University in the United States, said that this ice dance terrified him. “For a person who knows very little, if anything, about the Holocaust, this sends a message: put on a striped robe, adorn yourself with a yellow six-pointed Star of David, buy an all-inclusive package to a concentration camp, and your life will be wonderful, - he told reporters. “I would call this a crime against basic humanity.”
At the same time, the scientist expressed the opinion that this number is in line with the “cynicism that has permeated Russian political life from top to bottom,” writes the publication, an excerpt from the article of which is published by InoPressa.
Navka herself, in the wake of the discussion of the issue about the love of prisoners of a Nazi concentration camp, explained that the terrible time about which we're talking about in the room, you need to “know and remember”. The performance, as the skater explained, is based on her favorite film “Life is Beautiful,” based on the biography of an Italian Jew, a prisoner of Auschwitz. During the performance, Navka and her partner danced in striped prison uniforms with yellow stars David.
Holocaust is the generally accepted term for the genocide of Jews by the Nazis and their collaborators from 1933 to 1945. According to rough estimates, victims of massacres and the system concentration camps About six million Jews died.
The reason is that Navka and her partner chose for their speech the topic of the Holocaust, which is rarely used in such a context.
Navka herself stated that the dance in the robes of prisoners with the Star of David sewn on them (used to designate prisoners of concentration camps) Jewish origin) was an attempt to transfer the mood and aesthetics of the Italian Oscar-winning film “Life is Beautiful” onto ice: “Be sure to watch! One of my favorite numbers! Based on one of my favorite films, “Life is Beautiful”! Show this film to your children, be sure [!] Ours children must know and remember that terrible time, which I hope, God willing, they will never know."
The dancing couple - and Andrei Burkovsky - performed to the song Beautiful That Way by Nicola Piovani from the same film by Roberto Benigni, which tells the story of a boy and his Jewish father and their stay in a concentration camp.
The judges of the TV show praised the dance: the duo received 12 points based on the results of their performance on November 26, which brought them to the top of the ratings for the seventh season of “Ice Age.”
The video of the dance quickly went viral on the Internet and caused a flurry of comments from users around the world.
“Oh, those stupid Holocaust victims,” the American comedian wrote on Twitter. Jewish roots Sarah Silverman.
“How do you say ‘disgusting, offensively tasteless’ in Russian,” actor and writer Richard Belzer asks his subscribers.
“No matter what the plan was, it was inappropriate,” writes a Times columnist who goes by only the name Yashar.
In the Israeli blogosphere, the performance of Burkovsky and Navka did not cause much debate, journalist Evgeniy Sova told the BBC Russian Service.
"No reaction, except for a few people, violent activists on social networks. The film is Italian, the theme of the Holocaust... Israel does not have a monopoly on the topic of the Holocaust. With the exception of several dozen Russian-speaking commentators, no one reacted. On Monday, inter-factional day, I tried to find out from factions - so, they don’t understand what we’re talking about at all. Maybe, based on the results of the CNN story, someone will notice, but so far there has been nothing at the official level. Officials do not understand at all what kind of show this is. - well, they put on a show. I don’t even get into arguments on this topic on Facebook. Not a single politician will understand what this is. Maybe there’s no need to promote the topic of the Holocaust in the form of a dance, but that’s their right. There’s simply no reaction from Israel. ".
A new word was immediately found for the dancers’ outfit - “holocaustume”.
Social networks remembered the performance of choreographer Anastasia Antelava and actor of the Moscow Ermolova Theater Alexander Petrov on a similar project “Dancing with the Stars,” where the duo performed a romantic number about a Nazi military man and a resident of the occupied territory.
The couple danced a foxtrot to Fly Me to the Moon by Frank Sinatra; at the end of the composition, both heroes die.
"Only on Russian TV viewers entertainment shows can see the Holocaust on ice skates and dancing Nazis,” they compare both events on Twitter.
“90% of the speakers have not seen the number at all, they don’t understand what was being discussed, and for such people I am ready to explain once again: the theme of the program was “World Cinema”, the number was based entirely on the great movie “Life is Beautiful” directed by Roberto Benigni, who received three Oscars,” said figure skater Ilya Averbukh, who choreographed the dance, in an interview with Business-FM.
In Russia, commentators noticed that many Western media, when talking about the speech, made headlines that Navka is married to a press secretary Russian President Dmitry Peskov.
Peskov did not comment on his wife’s speech in detail
“I’m proud of my wife, that’s what I can say,” he told RIA Novosti.
Never before has an Ice Age show received so much press and so much heated discussion on the Internet, as after the number of Tatiana Navka and Andrei Burkovsky. The skaters performed it on Saturday, November 26, in an episode dedicated to world cinema.
Photo: fragment of the Channel One show “Ice Age”
From all the diversity of cinema dancing couple chose the Oscar-winning film by Italian director Roberto Benigni, “Life is Beautiful,” the existence of which the mass Russian television viewer might not have even suspected until last Saturday. The film, which tells about the Holocaust, was shot in a comedic manner - despite the horrors of their lives, its characters laugh and clownish, trying to convince their child that the concentration camp is just a game. Such a rare approach to covering tragic historical events Only a comedian with a jeweler's flair and a sense of proportion could afford it. Having told the same story through an ice show, the skaters received not only positive reviews, but also accusations of mocking the victims of the Holocaust.
The bad press began, as usual, from the West - on the website of the English Daily mail an article was published about skiing thin ice wife of Vladimir Putin's press secretary. Although the performers are dressed in striped camp uniforms with Stars of David sewn on them, their beaming smiles have little in common with such tragic theme, complains Daily mail. The Internet has not remained aloof from ambiguous number“Ice Age” - now in the Russian blogosphere you can find the whole gamut of ratings from “this is disgusting” to “Bravo, Tanechka!” By the way, the figure skater’s husband, Dmitry Peskov, has already stated that he is proud of his wife. Tatyana Navka herself was surprised by the reaction Western media. In her opinion, it turned out to be one of bright numbers"Ice Age", made with pure and good intentions.
The head coach and producer of the Ice Age show, Ilya Averbukh, who came up with this number, felt that the press was too biased because of Tatyana Navka. In his opinion, any other figure skater would not have attracted so much attention to her performance. So, in the previous program of the ice show there was a number by Ekaterina Barnabas, touching on the topic of the Armenian genocide, which no one paid attention to. Averbukh also recalled that no one attacked Yulia Lipnitskaya, who performed a program under musical theme from the film "Schindler's List", also dedicated to the theme of the Holocaust. True, Yulia Lipnitskaya’s costume did not contain such direct associations with the concentration camp; the skater used only a musical theme.
The question is how ready our public is to see ice show skaters of people in the uniform of prisoners of Auschwitz, a representative of the Jewish community has already commented. The Chief Rabbi of Moscow, Chairman of the Council of Rabbis of Europe, Head of the Rabbinical Court in the CIS and Baltic countries Pinchas Goldschmidt recalled that the Holocaust and everything connected with it is too big a wound. In his opinion, in such cases, in order not to touch a nerve, you need to consult. At the same time, the rabbi did not doubt the good intentions of the performers of this dance.
The dance was based on the Oscar-winning film “Life is Beautiful” by Roberto Benigni, which tells about the life of an Italian Jew, a prisoner of Auschwitz.
Photo: DR
After the Saturday release of the Ice Age program on Channel One, mixed assessments numbers of Tatyana Navka, the wife of the press secretary of Russian President Dmitry Peskov, and her partner, actor Andrei Burkovsky.
For example, The Huffington Post notes that Olympic ice dancing champion Tatyana Navka and actor Andrei Burkovsky performed a number, going out on the ice in the guise of Auschwitz prisoners - in striped pajamas with the Star of David on the chest. At the same time, the dancing couple performed to the song “Beautiful That Way” by composer Nicola Piovani. This composition was used in the film “Life is Beautiful,” which tells the story of the persecution of Jews during World War II.
Thus, the Israeli publication Haaretz emphasizes that this is not the first time that on Russian television in entertainment programs The theme of the Holocaust is used. In April of this year, Russian state television already apologized after Dancing with the Stars aired a number to Frank Sinatra's "Fly Me to the Moon" in which a German soldier during World War II began an affair with a Russian woman.
And yesterday the famous figure skater decided to comment on her performance and the topic raised:
“Be sure to check it out! One of my favorite numbers! Based on one of my favorite movies, Life is Beautiful! Show this movie to your children, be sure to @tatiana_navka @aburkovskiy PS: Our children should know and remember that terrible time, which, I hope, God willing, they will never know!”
“The topic of the Holocaust is so painful that this, first of all, should not be mockery and irony,” commented Alla Gerber, president of the Holocaust Foundation. “But if the performance reflects the resistance of the spirit and human dignity, then there is nothing wrong with a dance dedicated to the Holocaust,” concluded Gerber.
According to rough estimates, about six million people became victims of massacres in Nazi concentration camps...
