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-Great Cultural Revolution
NYC-funded puppet show turns into Israel bashing hatefest: ‘Came out of nowhere
2026-08-30
This is Zohran Mamdani’s New York City.
[NYP] A Jewish mother who took her 4-year-old son to what she thought would be a family-friendly puppet show in Lower Manhattan earlier this month was horrified when the performance morphed into an Israel-bashing disgrace, she told The Post.

"The Cardboard Pizza Puppet Circus," a show created and performed by puppet troupe the Boxcutter Collective
…the Collective part of their name hints at their collection of opinions…
that the ensemble describes as "a celebration of" New York City, was featured at this year’s International Puppet Fringe Festival, a multi-day celebration sponsored in part by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and New York State Council on the Arts.

"Featuring dancing skyscrapers, giant rats, fossil-fuel-fighting flowers, a live brass band, and Lady Liberty herself," the show’s description reads.

But 15 minutes into the Aug. 13 performance, the show shifted from covering New York-centric topics into controversial political positions against the Jewish state, said the Brooklyn mom, 43, who declined to be named.

"The anti-Israel stuff came out of nowhere," the mom said.

The Boxcutter Collective proved its pro-Palestinian bona fides in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 atrocity against Israel in which 1,200 men, women and children were killed, when it performed in the “Gaza Monologues” in November 2023 – on “The International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People” – in response to the “horrific war taking place in Gaza.”

“I knew that if I shouted something against Hamas, the crowd would turn against me, so I kept my mouth shut,” the mother told The Post. “My generation is now experiencing a fresh iteration of antisemitism here in New York that my family escaped back in the Soviet Union.”

Manuel Moran, the festival’s founder and producer, told Jerusalem News Syndicate earlier this week that organizers may have been in the dark about the troupe’s rogue content.

“As with many festivals, the full content of a production is not always known in advance, and the company premiered many elements of this work as part of the event,” he told JNS. “We stand behind our role in providing a platform for artists while recognizing that artists are responsible for their own work and should be able to speak to it directly.”

Moran told the outlet that in addition to a Yiddish-tinged skit appearing during the festival, an Israeli troupe, Hanut Theater Company, was invited but couldn’t arrange visas.

Calls made to the Boxcutter Collective, the International Puppet Fringe Festival, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and the New York State Council on the Arts went unanswered.
Posted by:Besoeker

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