10/14/2026
Federation Panel to Discuss Challenges for Jewish, Israeli Artists
Article reprinted with permission from Cleveland Jewish News
by Casey Swinarski
A career in the arts and entertainment industry means giving a performer or artist a platform to share their story, their identity, and their values. But for many Jewish and Israeli artists, that platform often comes with an unwelcomed audience – criticism and backlash.
The Jewish Federation of Cleveland’s Cleveland Israel Arts Connection and External Affairs Department will explore this topic at a panel titled “Presenting Israel: Challenges Faced by Artists and Presenters” from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Oct. 19 at the Jewish Federation of Cleveland at 25701 Science Park Drive in Beachwood.
Ashed
Marc Ashed, assistant vice president of external affairs at the Jewish Federation of Cleveland, told the Cleveland Jewish News that the panel – featuring Raymond Bobgan, executive artistic director at Cleveland Public Theatre; Yaron Kohlberg, artistic director at PianoCleveland; and Dale Heinen, executive and artistic director at BorderLight Theater Festival – will draw on artist experiences from a local level.
“We’ve got a very diverse group of panelists, and the topic is really the challenges that the arts community faces at the moment and how they feature Jewish/Israeli artists,” Ashed, who will moderate the panel, said. “It’s something that I think has become a little bit more prominent to people, even outside of the arts community, in the last couple of years.”
The timeliness of this panel, Ashed said, lines up with the recent publication of the Anti-Defamation League’s study titled “State of the Arts: Advancing Jewish Inclusion in Arts, Entertainment and Culture,” released in early October, which examines institutional practices across art museums, the publishing sector, and live performance venues.
It found that across 40 leading museums, not one includes Jewish identity in its DEI commitments. Further, Jewish and Israeli authors are being asked to change names of Jewish characters, performers’ shows are getting canceled, and rising antisemitism is raising security concerns for those in the arts and entertainment spaces.
“When it comes to Israeli artists, there is either a political litmus test which they must meet for people to platform them, or they’re just going to have difficulty getting shows,” Ashed said. “When they do have shows, they’re facing harassment and intimidation for their shows to be canceled, so it’s a very timely conversation.”
On Oct. 8, The Jerusalem Post reported that a performance of the verbatim play October 7 at Northwestern University’s Cahn Auditorium was abruptly disrupted and forced to evacuate when a fire alarm was set off on Oct. 7.
Representing a cross-section of Cleveland-based arts organizations, Ashed said that the panelists hope to bring a local angle to the conversation by sharing their own individual experiences of backlash that they’ve received through their respective roles.
“Each of the (panelists) have faced some sort of backlash, either from their own personal identity or from shows that they’ve put on, so we’re hoping to have a conversation around identifying the challenges they’ve each faced and identifying ways that they’ve continued to live out their arts and cultural values despite those challenges,” he said.
To Ashed, he hopes that attendees learn more about the Federation’s efforts and relationships within the arts community, as well as the efforts to give these artists a platform.
“We want them to walk away seeing the commitment that Cleveland has to not give in to the harassment and intimidation efforts to stop Israeli artists from being able to be showcased here,” he said. “Given the last few years and the rise of antisemitism, it’s important for people to see that in Cleveland, it’s not going to be tolerated.”
The event is free to attend, but registration is requested at jewishcleveland.org/news/upcoming-events/.
