JOURNALfor the STUDYof ANTISEMITISM

2011] ANTISEMITISM IN WAGNERIAN OPERA 255
are Jews” naïveté. It is true that Wagner had a number of long-term Jewish
supporters, including conductor Hermann Levi, and pianists Karl Tausig
and Joseph Rubenstein. But dealings with these men can only be characterized
as something similar to keeping pets in one’s home.
Levi was publicly and privately abused and humiliated by Wagner at
every opportunity, which included an insistence that Levi’s conversion to
Christianity was a prerequisite to his conducting of Parsifal. In the face of
this, Levi behaved like a lapdog, appreciative of any attention.
A letter from Levi to his rabbi father demonstrates what a spineless
individual the son must have been, not only to tolerate the abuse, but to
express such noble sentiments about Wagner. He calls him “the best and
noblest of men,” offers the view that Wagner’s antisemitic opinions
“[sprang] from the noblest motives,” and ends his pathetic letter with the
statement that “The most wonderful thing I have experienced in my life is
the privilege of being close to such a man, and I thank God for it every
day.”
Wagner had several reasons to deal with pianist Tausig. First, he was a
key fund-raiser for Bayreuth; second, he acted as a foil to the outrage
voiced by Wagner’s Jewish supporters after “Jewishness in Music” was
reprinted. Tausig was naïve enough to be content with Wagner’s 1869 letter
to him suggesting that if Jews would simply understand his essay in the
proper spirit, all would be well.
Rubenstein may have been deranged. When he first arrived to meet
Wagner, he was accompanied by his personal physician, who advised Wagner
of his instability; Rubenstein requested that Wagner offer him salvation
from his Jewishness. He came, however, from a wealthy family, played the
piano exceptionally well, promised financial support for the transcription of
Wagner’s scores, became his mascot and house Jew, and was exploited,
manipulated, and insulted behind his back by both Wagner and Cosima.
It is painful to report the bootlicking reactions of some Jews to Wagner.
Levi, Tausig, and Rubenstein were not the only Jewish apologists for
his antisemitic views, but they are, typically, the ones brought up to show
that Wagner’s loathing of Jews as a class was exaggerated. Wagner, however,
was prepared to enter into a symbiotic relationship with anyone,
providing that person could be of use, and that he [Wagner] would be
toadied to.
An international conference on Wagner and the Jews was held in the
Bavarian city of Bayreuth in August 1998. Sponsored by the universities of
Tel Aviv, Heidelberg, and Bayreuth, the event was funded by the Bayreuth
Festival, the German government, and Israel’s Howard Gilman Israel Culture
Foundation. The matter of the open-mindedness of the symposium