{"id":7656,"date":"2026-08-30T05:04:47","date_gmt":"2026-08-30T05:04:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=7656"},"modified":"2026-08-30T05:04:47","modified_gmt":"2026-08-30T05:04:47","slug":"nyc-funded-puppet-show-turns-into-israel-bashing-hatefest-came-out-of-nowhere","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=7656","title":{"rendered":"NYC-funded puppet show turns into Israel bashing hatefest: ‘Came out of nowhere’"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

A Jewish mother who took her 4-year-old son to what she thought would be a family-friendly puppet show in Lower Manhattan earlier this month was horrified when the performance morphed into an Israel-bashing disgrace, she told The Post. <\/p>\n

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\u201cThe Cardboard Pizza Puppet Circus,\u201d a show created and performed by puppet troupe the Boxcutter Collective that the ensemble describes as \u201ca celebration of\u201d New York City, was featured at this year\u2019s International Puppet Fringe Festival, a multi-day celebration sponsored in part by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and New York State Council on the Arts.<\/p>\n

\u201cFeaturing dancing skyscrapers, giant rats, fossil-fuel-fighting flowers, a live brass band, and Lady Liberty herself,\u201d the show\u2019s description reads.<\/p>\n

But 15 minutes into the Aug. 13 performance, the show shifted from covering New York-centric topics into controversial political positions against the Jewish state, said the Brooklyn mom, 43, who declined to be named. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe anti-Israel stuff came out of nowhere,\u201d the mom said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt went from pizza rat and parallel parking to accusations of Israel bombing hospitals.\u201d<\/p>\n

The \u201cpacked\u201d courtyard show, which the mom said was performed to a crowd of about 200 and ran for about an hour, included a skit with eight performers recreating a flotilla, which was met with enthusiastic jeers against Israel from audience members. At another point, remarks were made about American tax dollars going to Israel, she said. <\/p>\n

\u201cHow does anti-Israel propaganda figure into a play that\u2019s otherwise entirely about New York? Is hatred for Israel as synonymous with the City\u2019s brand as pizza rat?\u201d asked the \u201cproud Zionist\u201d mom, adding that her 4-year-old son \u201ckept asking what was happening when he saw I was taken aback.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Soviet Union refugee who now resides in Windsor Terrace, the mother said her \u201cheart was racing,\u201d as she watched many in the crowd appear to agree with \u201cthe litany of accusations\u201d made against Israel.<\/p>\n

\u201c(I was) feeling like I was surrounded by my ideological enemies,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis particular group had very antisemitic views,\u201d she said of the Boxcutter Collective. \u201cIt felt like a mob \u2013 the hairs on your neck stand up.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The Boxcutter Collective proved its pro-Palestinian bona fides in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 atrocity against Israel in which 1,200 men, women and children were killed, when it performed in the \u201cGaza Monologues\u201d in November 2023 \u2013 on \u201cThe International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People\u201d \u2013 in response to the \u201chorrific war taking place in Gaza.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew that if I shouted something against Hamas, the crowd would turn against me, so I kept my mouth shut,\u201d the mother told The Post. \u201cMy generation is now experiencing a fresh iteration of antisemitism here in New York that my family escaped back in the Soviet Union.\u201d<\/p>\n

Manuel Moran, the festival\u2019s founder and producer, told Jerusalem News Syndicate earlier this week that organizers may have been in the dark about the troupe\u2019s rogue content.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\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

Moran told the outlet that in addition to a Yiddish-tinged skit appearing during the festival, an Israeli troupe, Hanut Theater Company, was invited but couldn\u2019t arrange visas.<\/p>\n

Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, slammed the performance and festival, saying in a post on X, \u201cThis is an inappropriate use of public resources. Publicly funded cultural programming should never contribute to an environment in which Jewish New Yorkers feel unsafe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Calls made to the Boxcutter Collective, the International Puppet Fringe Festival, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and the New York State Council on the Arts went unanswered.<\/p>\n

Read more Former Red Sox catcher Rich Rowland dead at 62<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Brooklyn mom was horrified when a performance at the International Puppet Fringe Festival, which took place in lower Manhattan earlier this month, morphed into an anti-Israel political attack.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7655,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-metro"],"yoast_head":"\nNYC-funded puppet show turns into Israel bashing hatefest: 'Came out of nowhere' - Metro Transit Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=7656\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"NYC-funded puppet show turns into Israel bashing hatefest: 'Came out of nowhere' - 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