A Jewish cultural association from Amsterdam on Sunday said it would seek legal action against the city’s Royal Concert Hall for refusing to host two Chanukah events next month because they feature an Israeli cantor who’s serving in the Israel Defense Forces.
“We’re taking legal steps against the cancellation [of two B’nai Brith Chanukah concerts on Dec. 14] by the Royal Concert Hall,” the Chanukah Concert Association wrote in an email to its members about the venue’s decision to cancel the annual concerts if they feature cantor Shai Abramson.
Royal Concert Hall representatives told the Association that they do not agree to feature Abramson because he has “a prominent role in the IDF,” according to the Association.
The Association, which has stopped short of canceling the concerts as it prepares to fight the ban in court, disputed this characterization and protested the venue’s attempt to de-platform artists, it wrote.
Abramson’s title as chief cantor of the IDF means that he performs at ceremonies as part of his reserves service, “a service performed by hundreds of thousands of Israelis,” the Association wrote. It does not mean he is a prominent representative of the IDF, they added.
Regardless, they added, the venue “interferes with the liturgical content of our Chanukah celebration, and we cannot go along with this. Our programming, including the choice of the cantor, is part of the religious and cultural freedom.”
The Royal Concert Hall had not replied to JNS’s request for comment by time of publication.
This is not the first time the Royal Concert Hall has been the subject of a controversy involving Israel.
In 2023, the venue declined a different Jewish cultural group’s request to host a benefit for the ZAKA Jewish emergency service, which treated the victims of Hamas’s atrocities on Oct. 7 that year.
The venue allowed the organizers of the benefit to hold the event only if the money raised was shared between Israelis and Gazans via an anti-Israel Norwegian group, prompting ZAKA to disavow the event after the fact and say it would spurn the proceeds.
