New Zealand apologizes

The longtime director of an arts festival in New Zealand has apologized for removing “Israel” from a song in the musical “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” scheduled to be performed there.

May Pritchard, who has coordinated the Artsplash festival for 30 years, said in a letter to the Wellington Regional Jewish Council and other critics of the change that the original words would be reinstated for the performance that will take place in September, the JWire Jewish news website reported.

The phrase “Children of Israel are never alone” in the song “Close Every Door,” which features Joseph and a choir of children, was altered to “Children of kindness.”

Pritchard said she takes “‘full responsibility for this unfortunate and regrettable error.”

“You have my complete assurance that this was an unintentional and innocent error on the part of one of my team, and I apologize for it,” she said. “The person concerned, and myself for that matter, are religious people and would never consider intentionally doing anything racist or anti any religion.”

“There has never before been an incident of this sort, and I don’t expect there will be again,” Pritchard wrote, adding: “Action has been taken over the weekend to ensure that the original song words are all reinstated, with immediate effect.”