A man stormed the stage at a Jerusalem symposium on composer Richard Wagner and hurled insults at the audience in a protest over the German maestro's associations with the Nazis.
Ushers at last month's event struggled to restrain the strongly built protester, a man in his late 30s who gave his name as Ran Carmi. Ignoring shouted demands to leave the stage, he sang the Israel national anthem and yelled abuse, referring to at least one usher as a "Nazi collaborator."
Wagner was Adolf Hitler's favorite composer and his music is hardly ever performed in Israel, where for many it revives memories of the Holocaust.
Yair Stern, director general of the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, tried to calm the intruder, but was met with insults. "You defile the memory of your father, who was murdered so I could speak here today," Carmi said.
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