Cultural Decay at the 92nd Street Y

There are those who claim, like my first rabbinical school dean and teacher, Rabbi Gordon Tucker, that New York City is the greatest Jewish city in the world; greater than even Jerusalem.  New York has a little over 2 million Jewish residents, over 50 synagogues, a plethora of kosher restaurants, delicatessens, bakeries, Jewish bookstores, Judaica shops, and museums, not to mention well-regarded institutions of higher learning like Yeshiva University, Hebrew Union College and my Alma mater, the Jewish Theological Seminary. One of the treasurers of Jewish New York, perhaps even of New York itself, is the 92nd Street Y.  

Like our local JCC, the 92nd Street Y offers aerobics classes, fitness training and pilates.  It provides special holiday programs for all ages.  But the 92nd is best known for his exceptional cultural and educational offerings, most especially its "Lecture and Conversations" series.  Over the course of the year you can purchase tickets to hear such luminaries as E.L. Doctorow, Elie Wiesel, and Tom Friedman. These speakers address a wide variety of subjects not just those limited to areas of Jewish concern.  On January 27th, George Stephanopolous will be speaking on "How To Wield Power in the Modern World - sounds like a talk that shouldn't be missed!

That's what the folks who run the 92nd Street Y must have thought when they recently hosted comedian Steve Martin.  That wild and crazy guy spoke at the Y last week.  Actually, he appeared with friend and interviewer, Deborah Solomon.  Martin and Solomon agreed to do the program gratis.  What they didn't know, what the folks at the 92nd Street Y didn't tell them head of time, was that the Y had sold tickets for the event nationwide and telecast the event on closed-circuit t.v..  They also took questions via email from this national audience, another detail they failed to share ahead of time with Mr. Martin and Ms. Solomon.

Martin and Solomon thought that it might be interesting to focus their interview on the subject of his new novel set in the art world (Martin has a sizable art collection of his own and is known as an expert on the subject).  They never thought that their conversation would lead to controversy.  Midway through their live interview a 92nd Street Y staff person walked on stage and gave Ms. Solomon a note relaying the sentiments of their national closed circuit audience (the one they were unaware of).  It read, "Discuss Steve's career."  After receiving complaints from ticket holders the 92nd Street Y offered a refund to those who expressed dissatisfaction with Mr. Martin and Ms. Solomon's "performance."  

What the 92nd Street Y did is nothing short of a shonda (a disgrace) on so many levels.  Their treatment of Mr. Martin and Ms. Solomon was reprehensible.  The institution repaid their generosity - their appearance b'hofshi (for free) - by selling tickets to a viewership which they didn't know about, and then publicly embarrassing the two by offering a ticket refund (this story has made national headlines).

But what's also disturbing is how this fiasco reflects the sad state of American culture; namely, that more and more people - even the folks who would pay to sit in a room somewhere in front of a screen or t.v. to  watch a 92nd Street Y cultural program - want to be entertained rather than educated or enlightened  It would have been better I imagine, even preferred, if Steve Martin had stood up in front of everyone and  played the banjo while wearing a faux arrow through his head, rather than talk about the enriching quality of art.  More and more of us seem to expect people to perform for us rather than challenge us or make us think.  Unfortunately, it's a cultural trend that doesn't appear limited to the halls of the 92nd Street Y.  Hey, if it can happen at that venerable Jewish institution it can happen just about anywhere.