Depiction of Ukrainian folk art repeats offensive stereotypes, visitor complains

Organizers of the Quebec Winter Carnival said yesterday they won't remove or alter a controversial snow sculpture of a traditional Ukrainian Christmas scene that includes a stereotypical bearded Jew in a skullcap, holding a bag of money.

The folkloric piece was carved on-site from a block of snow last weekend.

"If we offended anyone, we apologize," said Jean Pelletier, general manager of the carnival. "This was not our intention." For next year's version, he said, "we will review our procedures so that this kind of situation does not happen again." The 17-day carnival ends at 4 p.m. tomorrow.

A description posted beside the snow sculpture said it represents a theatrical piece that takes place in Ukraine at Christmas. The story's six characters - "Astrologer, Czar, Warrior, Jew, Death and Goat" - are "divided into positive and negative heroes. They represent, in satiric and ironic form, the life of people." All six archetypes are arranged on a boat "symbolizing the birth of Goodness." Altering the sculpture in any way so to remove the depiction of the Jew would raise other issues, Pelletier said.

"I don't think we should be modifying art works." Jake Burack, a professor of child psychology and special education at McGill University, complained after visiting the carnival last weekend with his wife and children.

"The face itself was nice enough, but it was so classic, the hunched shoulder, the big crooked nose," he said.

"The kids, they're 11 and 8, they saw how upset my wife was. We explained to the kids why we were upset, that these depictions of Jews were very detrimental.

"The more I looked at it, the more it just reminded me of the caricatures you see in Germany before the war, this stereotypical European portrayal of Jews," he added.

Burack's verbal complaint, conveyed to staff on-site, was the only one received by carnival officials about the depiction, Pelletier said.

The event, which began Jan. 30, is the largest winter carnival on the planet, with this year's attendance on track for at least 400,000 visitors, Pelletier said.

Based on last year's results, 48 per cent of visitors come from more than 40 kilometres away - 20 per cent from outside Quebec. An estimated 13 per cent were from the United States, where the carnival is promoted in New England and the New York area.

Larysa Iarovenko, Ukrainian programs manager at the Centre for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies at the University of Toronto's Munk Centre for International Studies, said the scene represented by the sculpture is called Vertep.

It refers to a type of puppet show, but also to a tradition similar to trick-or-treating, in which revelers "put on different costumes, like a devil, an angel, Saddam Hussein, whoever. And they sing and go from house to house."

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