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TRANSSEXUAL SINGER IRKS
RABBIS
by PlanetOut,
Tuesday, November 25, 1997
A selection committee appointed
by the Israel Broadcasting Authority on November 24 chose
male-to-female transsexual Dana International to represent the
nation at the 1998 Eurovision Song Contest, to the dismay of
Orthodox Jewish leaders of the far-right Shas Party. Selection
Committee Chair Gil Samsonov said that Dana's song
"Diva" was "far and away the best" of 33
entries considered, and believes her transsexual status might
even be an edge in the contest Israel has lost so many times
before. He said, "We should be seen as a liberal, free
country that chooses songs on their merits, not on the basis
of the body of the man or woman." Nonetheless the Shas
Party's representative on the Israel Broadcasting Authority
board, Gaby Butbul, said that he'll try to intervene to change
the selection to what he called a "consensus"
candidate. Dana's manager Ofer Nissim anticipated the
opposition but said, "I believe the broadcasting
authority will give us all the support we need."
Most vocal against Dana has
been Shas Party Deputy Health Minister Rabbi Shlomo Ben-Izri,
who believes that gender reassignment surgery is "worse
than an act of sodomy." He said, "The Eurovision
Song Contest interests me about as much as the weather in
Antarctica. But as a son of the Jewish people this offends me.
The choice is disgraceful for me as a Jew. The Jewish people
have always been a light unto the nations. They will now be a
darkness unto the nations. Everyone abroad will say: 'Look at
those Jews and what they are sending to perform, some kind of
crossbreed.' Dana is an abomination. Even in Sodom there was
nothing like it."
Dana has been performing for
seven years. She was born Yaron Cohen in Tel Aviv to a
working-class Yemenite-Jewish family and underwent gender
reassignment in 1993. She enjoys singing in Arabic as well as
in Hebrew, French and English. Her manager claims her albums
have sold a half-million copies in Cairo alone. She came close
to representing Israel at this past year's Eurovision, her
rendition of "Layla Tov Eropa" (Good Night, Europe)
came in second at the 1995 Kdam contest, and at least one
radio station's audience selected her as female singer of the
year. She told the "Jerusalem Post" that,
"People in Israel don't know what drag is, they don't
know how to appreciate it -- it is a very primitive country
sometimes."
This is not the first time that
she has drawn the attention of Orthodox rabbis: previously
they had solemnly determined that it would be all right for
men to listen to her as long as they knew she was a
"male;" the same rabbis believe it is improper for
men to listen to singers who were born female.
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