The Controversy About Anti-Semitism in Bach's St John Passion

Boston Baroque will be performing J.S. Bach's St. John Passion on Friday, February 27 and Saturday, February 28, 2015. Prior to the Friday evening performance, the group will sponsor a panel discussion hosted by WBUR's Christopher Lydon on the controversy concerning anti-Jewish passages in the work. Panelists Include Martin Pearlman, Music Director; James Bernauer, Director of the Center for Christian-Jewish Learning at Boston College; Deeana Klepper, Assoc. Professor of Religion at Boston University; and Robert Marshall, Eminent musicologist and Bach Scholar at Brandeis University.

The controversy has been in the US public eye at least since an incident in 1995 at Swarthmore College in Philadelphia, where several members of the college choir refused to perform the work because they perceived portions of the text as anti-Semitic. The following year, Swarthmore professor and Bach scholar Michael Marissen published a book on the topic.

The issue has not gone away, with (as reported in Jewish Chronicle Online) parishioners of Berlin's Cathedral threatening in 2012 to leave should the Cathedral allow a performance of the St John Passion in which the libretto had been altered to make it less "Judeophobic"—replacing passages depicting Jews calling for Jesus's crucifixion with extracts from Jewish liturgy and Muslim poetry. (The performance went on as planned.)

The Boston Baroque discussion will take place on Friday, February 27 at 6:30 PM, at Jordan Hall. Admission is free to holders of tickets for the performance.