Author Yoram Kaniuk
Photo: Nir Shaanani
Goldblum at Yad Vashem
Photo: Yossi Ben-David
Author: Yad Vashem ‘Disneyland for tourists’
In press conference to announce film adaptation of his novel Adam’s Resurrection, starring Jeff Goldblum, Yoram Kaniuk 'lets slip' criticism of Holocaust museum. Goldblum, however, calls his Yad Vashem tour 'one of most moving experiences'. Yad Vashem responds: We never forced anyone to come here
The new Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial museum took hard renowned Israeli author Yoram Kaniuk’s recent comment that, “They turned Yad Vashem into a Disneyland for tourists.”
Kaniuk made the statements during a press conference Monday in Jerusalem to announce a new film - an international co-production based on his novel “Adam Resurrected,” a hallucinatory spectacle whose main character is a Jewish clown who is forced to be pet dog to a death camp manager during the Holocaust.
Kaniuk took the podium immediately after actor Jeff Goldblum, who was in Israel as a guest of the Jerusalem film festival and who was cast in the film’s title role, described his experience of the Holocaust museum to journalists.
Yad Vashem responds
After Kaniuk criticized the Holocaust museum in response to a reporter’s question, the museum released a statement saying: “We never forced anyone to come to Yad Vashem. Thousands visit to the museum daily of their own accord. Jeff Goldblum personally asked to be given an in-depth tour of the museum, and stayed for over four hours. At the end of the tour, he even asked for help doing research to prepare for his role in the film. We regret Kaniuk’s choice of words, and invite him to visit also.”
After the uproar stirred up by Kaniuk’s comments, the author clarified: “I am sorry if anyone was hurt by what I said. My intention was to say that for many years I have had the feeling that a media spectacle is being made out of the most horrific of things. The comments, which were entirely my own opinion, simply slipped out. It is clear that Yad Vashem is an instructive institution of enormous importance. I myself visited dozens of time. I was also not referring to Jeff Goldblum’s visit to the museum, which was personal and was done without newspapers and cameramen.
“My opposition was aimed at the protocol that has been created, which dictates that every official visitor to Israel must stop at the Western Wall then immediately go to Yad Vashem to be impressed by the horrors. A visit there should not be out of duty or obligation,” Kaniuk said.
Goldblum: 'Most moving experience'
Goldblum, who was unintentionally swept up in the sensitive situation, told Ynet that his visit to Yad Vashem was one of the strongest and most emotional experiences of his life. “The power of the place is enormous,” he said. He added that the guides and staff of the museum were incredibly generous and during the four-hour tour, “told me stories I had never heard before about that terrible time.” He said he visited the museum’s audio-visual center, which was very helpful to him in researching the role he is to play in the film.
Speaking of his guide Dana, Goldblum said her devotion to the subject and her involvement in the site were simply admirable. He described his visit as “very moving” and “a total knockout,” and noted that he was impatiently awaiting a second, even more in-depth visit.
“I cried from the moment I walked in and watched the movie that showed what life was like and what it turned into,” Goldblum said. When I stepped out of there and into Jerusalem’s amazing landscape, I knew I would never forget this moment, he said.
