World IN BRIEF : ISRAEL : Orchestra Performs Wagner as Rehearsal

The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra gave its promised performance of music by Richard Wagner but sought to forestall protests by treating the event as a rehearsal. There was an outcry nonetheless that Israel’s premier orchestra had broken its 53-year-old taboo on performing works by the German composer, a favorite of Hitler. But the protests, like the concert, were delivered in a minor key. A lone concentration camp survivor stood outside the auditorium with a protest placard, and Parliament Speaker Dov Shilansky, also a Holocaust survivor, went on Israel radio to ask: “Why, in God’s name, why?”