BALTIMORE —A man shouting a pro-Nazi and pro-Donald Trump salute during a performance of “Fiddler on the Roof” in Baltimore has reignited discussions of anti-Semitism amid increases in hate crimes nationwide.
Audience member Rich Scherr said the outburst, during intermission at the Hippodrome Theatre on Wednesday, prompted fears that it was the beginning of a shooting. The man, who had been seated in the balcony, began shouting “Heil Hitler, Heil Trump.” Immediately after that, “People started running,” Scherr said. “I’ll be honest, I was waiting to hear a gunshot. I thought, ‘Here we go.’”
Samit Verma was seated in the balcony when he heard shouting and saw a man holding his hand straight up in a Nazi salute, he said in an email Thursday. Ushers rushed over to the man while audience members quickly made their way out of the theater and into the hall, Verma said.
“The people around me appeared to be quite shaken by the incident,” Verma said in the email. “There were some people in tears.”
Baltimore Police were called and security escorted the man out a few minutes later, a police spokeswoman said, and the show continued. Witnesses told the Baltimore Sun that the audience applauded as the man was removed.
Police issued a stop ticket to the man, but he was not arrested, police said. A stop ticket is the least severe measure police can take when responding to a complaint, followed by citations and arrests. Stop tickets do not carry any fines or other penalties and do not require follow-up from the recipient.
“As reprehensible as those words are, they are considered protected free speech because nobody was directly threatened,” police spokesman Matt Jablow said in an email.
The outburst occurred during intermission, immediately following a scene that depicts a wedding interrupted by a pogrom —an attack on Jewish people which can range from destruction of homes or property to outright massacre.
For some, it was an eerie moment of life imitating art. Audience member Theodore Casser said the incident at intermission made the following act all the more poignant for him as a person of Jewish faith.
“It is a story inherently about Jews being made not to feel welcome, and here is this bozo who decided to express that he felt we should not be welcome here either,” Casser said.
Fresh on the minds of many was the shooting last month at a Pittsburgh synagogue that killed 11 people inside. Witnesses in that instance said the gunman shouted “All Jews must die,” before opening fire.
But Scherr, 49, said it was hard to focus on the play after the outburst. “My heart was just racing. I didn’t even really pay attention to the second act.”
“Fiddler” tells the story of a Jewish family as it faces persecution in tsarist Russia. It’s based on “Tevye the Dairyman,” a series of fictional stories by author Sholem Aleichem, originally written in Yiddish. The play opened Tuesday and runs through Sunday in Baltimore.
In a statement, Hippodrome officials apologized to patrons and emphasized that a full team of security is always on-site during live performances to check bags and screen patrons, as well as monitor cameras throughout the venue.
“Our venue has a proud tradition of providing shared experiences to people from all walks of life, right in the heart of this wonderfully diverse city, and we intend to continue that tradition in the spirit of bringing people together, not dividing them.”
Uniformed police will be stationed at the Hippodrome for the remaining “Fiddler” shows through Sunday, Jablow said. Their presence was not requested by the theater, he said. Jablow also said police did a background check on the man who shouted the salute, and found that he wasn’t a threat to public safety. Police are not monitoring him further, he said.
Hippodrome President Ron Legler declined to comment.
Howard Libit, executive director of the Baltimore Jewish Council, said the incident was concerning to the Jewish community, and he understood why theatergoers worried the outburst could have signaled the start of a more violent episode.
“We’re all very sensitive and concerned in the wake of the recent shootings,” Libit said. “Shouting that seems to be the equivalent of shouting ‘fire’ in a theater, or shouting ‘bomb.’
“I’m certainly grateful that it wasn’t the start of some broader, more violent incident,” Libit added. “Whatever he was intending to say was hateful and hurtful and potentially very dangerous … it sounds like some of the people were kind of moving quickly to get out of the way.”
Emily Wilson has tickets for an upcoming performance of “Fiddler” this weekend. News of the incident alarmed her, but would not deter her from attending, she said Thursday.
After the show concludes in Baltimore, the company is scheduled to head to Pittsburgh for performances Nov. 20-25 at the Benedum Center for the Performing Arts.
The United States has seen a recent surge in anti-Jewish incidents, including the October shooting in Pittsburgh.
Anti-Jewish incidents reported to police in Maryland jumped 47 percent in 2017 to 78 incidents, according to a Baltimore Sun review of records. That was amid a 35 percent increase of overall hate or bias incidents reported to police statewide last year.
Earlier Wednesday, a swastika and anti-black graffiti were found in a bathroom at Goucher College in Towson.
Casser, who sat in the audience Wednesday night, said while he felt comfortable with the Hippodrome’s security measures Wednesday, it shocked him to see an anti-Semitic incident happening in a city with a sizable Jewish population.
“It’s a little sobering because it’s getting closer and closer to home,” he said. “How safe are any of us anyway?”