Mr Sagi Hartov LRAM PGRAM MMUS FRAM is a cellist and the Director of the Spiro Ark's Tzavta. Mr Hartov is also the 'chairman' of the Israeli & Ernest Bloch Music Competitions'.
On 6 June 2010 Mr Hartov posted on his facebook wall a link to a YouTube video. This part of his personal page can be seen by anyone with a facebook account. His profile "wall" is open to anyone, and is viewable directly from the event which Mr Hartov created to to promote the competition. The video is, to my mind, in extremely bad taste, and I personally consider it NSFW. If you don't fancy watching it, a transcript of the video is available below the video. The furore surrounding the video has been covered today by the BBC and the Liberal Conspiracy blog.
An event which Mr Hartov attended entitled
"Israeli demonstration (support israel and the real truth)"(sic.)
Mr Hartov also posted a link to the following page of Israeli Propaganda
Mr. Hartov's Israeli & Ernest Bloch Music Competition is supported by the SOAS based Jewish Music Institute (JMI). On their website, I found the following post:
" What is Jewish Music?
Jewish music stems from ancient prayer chants of the Levant some 3000 years ago. The musical notation that developed and that we find in the bible today is one of the most ancient forms of notated music, and yet it is still in current practice all over the world today. Jewish music has been constantly adapting to new conditions and yet retaining its identity in many widely differing ethnic, social and religious environments.
Through its daughter religions, the music of Judaism is one of the fundamental elements in the understanding of the sacred and secular traditions of Europe and the Near East, first having influenced, and then having been influenced by, the music of Christian and Islamic cultures. The study of Jewish music encompasses many genres of religious, semi religious and folk music used in the Synagogue and in the Jewish home and also art music using Jewish texts or themes. The study of Jewish music combines distinctively, the essential elements of musicology, ethnomusicology and interculturalism. Jewish music today encompasses a wide diversity of musical traditions and Jewish songs are sung in many different languages."
Mr. Hartov's views are clearly at odds with JMI's ethos. While I accept he is free to hold whatever personal opinions he pleases, the fact that he is publicly posting such content to his publicly viewable facebook page, on click away from the Israeli and Ernest Bloch Music Competition he is promoting in the name of JMI is questionable.If you feel strongly about this you can complain to JMI via email.
