Fury over skating routine
A Russian state-owned television channel has come under fire after airing a figure-skating performance featuring concentration camp inmate uniforms.
A RUSSIAN state-owned television channel has come under fire after airing a figure-skating performance featuring dancers wearing uniforms worn by Jewish concentration camp inmates.
Actor Andrey Burkovsky and Tatiana Navka, a professional figure skater and wife of a senior Kremlin spokesman, wore striped pyjamas with yellow Star of David patches while dancing to a song by an Israeli singer on the Russia-1 channel Saturday night. It was aired as part of Ice Age, a popular Russian celebrity ice dancing show similar to Dancing With the Stars.
Throughout the four-minute performance, Navka and Burkovsky frolic and play cheerfully with an imaginary infant. Near the end of the routine, a bright light shines on them.
Burkovsky signals to Navka that he must go and gestures for her to take care of the imaginary child before he walks into the light. A loud bang is heard and the stage goes dark but for Navka’s face as she closes her eyes and clutches the imaginary infant with her back turned to Burkovsky.
The act was loosely inspired by Roberto Benigni’s 1997 film Life is Beautiful, which tells the story of a Jewish Italian man who attempts to distract his son from the horrors of the Holocaust. Navka and Burkovsky danced to the song Life is Beautiful, performed by Israeli singer Noa, from the film’s soundtrack.
The unusual performance prompted criticism on social media. Historian Deborah Lipstadt tweeted, “Have you lost all sense of decency? Have you no shame?”
Comedian Sarah Silverman was equally shocked, tweeting, “Oh those whacky [sic] Holocaust victims (Oh my God Oh my God Oh my God).”
Navka is married to Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Yohanan Petrovsky-Shtern, a professor of Jewish studies at Northwestern University in Illinois, described the routine as “a crime against elementary humanity”.
This was not the first time Russian television featured performers dressed in Holocaust-themed decor to perform in a reality show competition.
In April, Russia’s version of Dancing with the Stars featured a routine starring a man dressed as a Nazi officer searching for a young Jewish girl hiding behind a piano.
The piece began with the officer playing the instrument, stopping suddenly and demanding the girl reveal herself before “shooting” his weapon at her feet.
Taken aback at her beauty, he lowers his weapon and the two begin to dance to Fly me to the Moon by Frank Sinatra.
JTA, THE JERUSALEM POST
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