Rabbi leads vigil outside Met to protest opera

By VERENA DOBNIK, Associated Press

Oct 20, 2014 12:44 PM CDT

Copied

FILE - In this Sept. 22, 2014, file photo, protestors attend the arrivals at the Metropolitan Opera 2014-15 Season Opening in New York to register their disapproval of the Met's decision to premiere the controversial opera "The Death of Klinghoffer," later in the season. The opera, about the hijacking... (Associated Press)

NEW YORK (AP) — A prominent New York rabbi has led a prayer vigil outside the Metropolitan Opera to protest an opera that opponents say glorifies Palestinian terrorists.

Teenagers from Jewish faith-based schools joined Rabbi Avi Weiss on Monday in a makeshift prayer spot opposite the Met. They discussed Hebrew scriptures in shifts of about a dozen throughout the day.

An evening rally was planned over the Met's premiere of "The Death of Klinghoffer."

Leon Klinghoffer was the 69-year-old New Yorker shot in his wheelchair aboard the Achille Lauro (ah-KEE'-leh LOW'-roh) Italian cruise ship. It was hijacked in 1985 by four men from the Palestinian Liberation Organization who then pushed him into the sea.

Weiss says the music "extols" the terrorists, while the Klinghoffers come off as petty, money-conscious characters.