The Rhode Island Coalition for Israel has objected to a show coming to the Gamm theatre in Warwick next month titled, ” Bad Jews.” Ken Schneider of Rhode Island Coalition for Israel state the following:

“I am writing on behalf of the RI Coalition for Israel. The Gamm theatre in Warwick will soon be putting on a play called Bad Jews. We and many in the community find this extremely offensive, antisemitic and uncaring. There is a rise in antisemitism going on right now. We have attempted to meet with Gamm people including the President Dan Marwell. Their position is that they admit the title is provocative, but the play is humorous. We are only concerned that the huge sign in front of the theatre is normalizing Jew hatred to the 1000’s of casual citizens that pass it daily. We have reached out to local rabbis but none of them want to step up and take a position. The Gamm would never put on a play called Bad Blacks or Bad Muslims as they know they would have a HUGE problem. Jews have been marginalized, partly because there is not enough pushback by Jews against antisemitism. RICI of course is a group of Christians and Jews, and we don’t give anybody a pass.” For our organization the fight against anti-Semitism, or Jew-hatred, is a core mission. We are writing out of concern that the production, while theatrically sound, is not only offensive to the Jewish community but
tone-deaf to the realities of the current environment of spiking hate crimes against Jews.
One only has to look at the unprecedented anti-Semitism summit organized by the current administration to
appreciate the reality of the crisis and the lack of proven tools to cope with it. In the current environment any
excuse is used as a justification for attacking Jews verbally, in the media, or physically in the streets.

Thank you,

Ken Schneider of RICI

It is interesting who is on the board of director for the Gamm and Executive committee, including head of RIPTA and member of the office of Attorney General. There has been a steady beat of news lately of Antisemitism around the state and the group believes this will amplify it.