Samson cast as Jewish terrorist

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.