Rivlin, Tropper host meeting with arts industry over COVID-19 damages
Coronavirus limitations are so severe that financially, the reopening of theaters and concert halls is a losing proposition.
By GREER FAY CASHMANIsrael President Reuven Rivlin(photo credit: JERUSALEM POST)COVID-19 restrictions have cast a pall on Israel’s cultural life. Although some performing artists have been using social media platforms to entertain fans at home and abroad from the confines of their living rooms or their balconies, it’s not the same as an in-the-flesh live performance, and it certainly isn’t helping the backstage sound, light, scenery and costume experts who have been left unemployed for nearly half a year.At a meeting with representatives of arts and culture organizations and institutions at the President’s Residence on Wednesday, President Reuven Rivlin and Culture and Sport Minister Chili Tropper were repeatedly told that arts and culture were the first victims of the lockdown and the last to be permitted to reactivate.But limitations are so severe that financially, the reopening of theaters and concert halls is a losing proposition. Even though audiences would like to fill the auditoriums, only a limited number are permitted to be present at any given time.Among those attending the meeting were singer and composer Arkadi Duchin, CEO of the Na Laga’at Theater of the Blind Oren Yitzhaki, filmmaker Avi Nesher, Beit Lessin Theater Director Tzipi Pines, chairman of the Association of Impresarios and Producers Yoni Feingold, script writer and director Meir Zaguri, actress and author Gila Almagor, actress Nili Tager, stand-up comedienne Revital Vitelzon Jacobs, Umm el-Fahm art gallery director Said Abu Shakra, actor Dror Keren, actress Nurit Shalom, sound technicians Ilan Mor and Eyal Altratz, CEO of the Association of Stage Impresarios and Producers Inbal Giurano and the director of the Beersheba Theater and the Goodman Drama School Shmulik Yifrah.At the outset, Rivlin told his guests that there was need for them to hear more pretty words about the significance of culture to the nation, because they were all well aware of that.“Culture and art are not luxuries,” he declared. “They are the architects of the soul of a people. Without Israeli culture and arts, the State of Israel would not be what it is today.”Aside from the cultural creativity which performers and visual artists bring to the public, Rivlin noted, they are also human beings – fathers, mothers with families and with the needs of every family.In recent weeks, he added, the crisis has exacerbated, and it’s clear that it’s going to get worse and will demand special efforts from everyone. At times like these, he emphasized, much more solidarity is required and far less alienation.The state has an obligation to all its citizens, and a moral duty to assess how much each one has been harmed and how much each one needs to hold his or her head above water, said Rivlin, noting that he was conscious of the distress in which people of the industry find themselves.Tropper said that as tough as things are for everyone, he was glad that some progress had been made toward assistance to people engaged in entertainment and the arts, and that actors have been permitted to return to the stage.“The Israeli public is in desperate need of fresh air and hope,” said Tropper, “and cultural enterprises have the ability to provide this.”Nesher warned that unless the situation improves, the world of cinema is in danger of demise. He said that the meeting at the President’s Residence was a spark of hope for everyone involved in arts and culture.Pines was upset that the image of people engaged in arts and culture professions had been tarnished and that they were widely regarded as parasites who had no right to exist.Almagor spoke of how painful it was for her that all the theaters had been closed.“I’ve spent nearly all my life on the stage,” she said. “I don’t remember experiencing anything like this before.”Inasmuch as the meeting was in some respects a morale booster, it offered no real solutions to people who don’t know how much longer they will be able to stretch their savings in order to feed their children. Some have already exhausted whatever savings they had.
