37 years ago, in October 1985, Jews in Frankfurt made history in the Federal Republic.

It was the first time they publicly protested against "subsidized anti-Semitism".

They occupied the stage of the Frankfurt Kammerspiel when Rainer Werner Fassbinder's play "Der Müll, die Stadt und der Tod" was to be premiered.

The criticism was directed at the main character of the play, who Fassbinder had bluntly equipped with striking anti-Semitic clichés as “the rich Jew”: a Jewish real estate speculator, unscrupulous, insidious, sex-obsessed, greedy for power.

Fassbinder reproduced one of the most influential and long-lasting prejudices against Jews.

The theater director meant Ignatz Bubis, later President of the Central Council of Jews, many said at the time.

We remembered the debate, which neither of us personally experienced, when anti-Semitism was again accused of anti-Semitism against a play, "Birds" by the Lebanese-Canadian director Wajdi Mouawad.

It is about several generations of a Jewish family who meet in Israel and the relationship between a Jew and a Muslim woman who have to fight for their love.

The trigger for the current debate was a public letter from the Jewish Student Union in Germany and the Association of Jewish Students in Bavaria, in which the students accused the play of anti-Semitism.

In Israel, the performance was praised

After mediation efforts ultimately failed, the affected metropolitan theater recently announced that it was taking the play off the schedule.

However, the similarity between the two theater scandals is deceptive.

While Fassbinder consciously relied on anti-Semitic stereotypes, the current allegations against “birds” are on shaky ground.

"Vögel" has been performed hundreds of times since its Paris premiere in 2017, and the play has also been shown on more than twenty stages in German-speaking countries.

Even in Israel, "Birds" was widely acclaimed by critics and audiences alike when it premiered at Tel Aviv's renowned Cameri Theater in 2018.

The Israeli press particularly highlighted the collaboration between Arab and Jewish-Israeli actors, the multilingualism – Arabic, Hebrew, German and English – and the author's empathy for the Jewish perspective.

The international cast participated in the writing process of the play, reports the Israeli actress Liora Rivlin.

"What struck me deeply was Wajdi Mouawad's attempt to understand the pain and suffering of the enemy," Eli Bijaoui said at the time.

In the same report, Wajdi Mouawad said, "I love all the characters in my play.

Even the Jews, whom I learned to hate as a child.” Did everyone let themselves be dazzled by Mouawad and didn't realize how anti-Semitic is at work here – right down to the Israeli Foreign Ministry, which co-financed the production in Paris and Geneva?

Wajdi Mouawad told Haaretz that his family in Lebanon was threatened as a result of this cooperation.

The anti-Israel boycott campaign BDS also campaigned against the production and performance.

It is not without a certain irony that Jewish students of all people, in an involuntary alliance with BDS activists, now want to prevent the play.