A British Columbia choir is preparing a production of Handel s 1743 oratorio in which Samson is presented as a Jewish suicide bomber. Simon Capet, music director of the Victoria Philharmonic Choir, said he wanted to make the biblical story of Samson relevant to modern audiences by drawing a comparison to the 1946 bombing of the British headquarters at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem by the militant Zionist group Irgun. Is there any difference between pulling down a pillar or blowing a bomb? Capet was quoted in media reports as saying . Victoria Rabbi Itzchak Marmorstein said Capet s interpretation of the oratorio promotes a shallow understanding of history. In a March 29 editorial, Toronto s National Post newspaper argued that in the name of political honesty, the production by the professional choir should have cast Hamas or al-Qaida as the terrorists.
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