This is a piece I wrote because I was so upset about the incredible attacks on the TIFF protesters and in particular on Naomi Klein who played a major role in getting Hollywood stars to sign on to the Toronto Declaration . It was published today in the National Post with the headline "Naomi Klein vs Angry Jewish Males."
There has been a pattern of name calling instead of debate around Israeli Apartheid Week and other protests against Israel but it reached a fever pitch around the tiff with 7 op eds published in the National Post alone not to mention a full page ad financed by the Canadian Jewish Congress and it's LA counterpart. The level of hysteria indicates how successful the action was in getting some real debate and attention as to why Tel Aviv and Israel should not be celebrated as long as they continue their murderous occupation but this time I decided to write something as a Jew to counter those angry Jewish men and what they represent.
My grandmother would have been so proud of Naomi Klein. "Such a pretty girl," she would have said "and so smart." She would have been amazed that a Jew, and a woman no less, could achieve such international recognition at such a young age. She might not have agreed with Naomi on Israel, but she would have been kvelling nonetheless.
Instead, many in the Jewish community and the media are attacking Ms. Klein for her role in supporting a protest letter against the Toronto International Film Festival's decision to celebrate the city of Tel Aviv during this year's film festival.
My grandma died in 1955, and she taught me everything I know about being Jewish. My mother's parents came to New York at the end of the 19th century, fleeing pogroms in Southern Russia. Poor and unskilled, like most of those immigrants, they worked hard and eventually made a good life for themselves and their children in Brooklyn, where I was raised.
What I learned from Grandma was strength in the face of adversity. She was in a wheelchair as long as I could remember, but she never complained and always remained the powerful matriarch of the family.
Kindness to others, especially strangers in need, was another lesson. Some of my strongest memories of childhood were from our huge Passover Seders. That was where I learned that empathy and social justice were part of the Jewish tradition.
In my family, neither the pogroms, nor the Holocaust were ever discussed. We had found a safe place now, and our energy was put toward building good lives for ourselves. That was where safety and security lay. Even when we came to Canada, and I faced anti-Semitism for the first time, my mother said, "Just because they call you dirty Jew, don't call them dirty Christian back." Don't sink to their level, was the message.
At my father's table, I learned that Jews love to argue and debate. My religious education was always about asking questions and expressing my opinion, never about unquestioning alliance to any idea or philosophy. My grandfathers on both sides were pious Orthodox Jews, but they never forced their religiosity on their children, who adopted a more secular lifestyle, observing only the most important Jewish holidays.
I've been moved to reflect on these lessons as I now survey the hysterical response to the filmmakers and artists who have spoken out against TIFF's spotlight on Tel Aviv. This hysteria has left me heartsick. Those, such as Ms. Klein, who believe that this is a poor year to celebrate Tel Aviv and Israel -- in large part because of the 1,387 Palestinians (mostly innocent civilians, according to the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem) killed during Israel's Gaza operations -- have faced vicious criticism. They have been called anti-Semitic, self-hating Jews, supporters of censorship, Blacklisters, vigilantes, a lynch mob. I was even called a Capo (the Jews who delivered other Jews to the gas chambers) in some hate mail I received.
There is a debate to be had about what the media calls the tiff at TIFF; and festival co-director Cameron Bailey and others from TIFF have argued for their position responsibly. But the distorted attacks in this newspaper from Robert Lantos, Bernie Farber, Murray Teitel and Jonathan Kay, among others, are unacceptable and totally outside of the Jewish tradition in which I was raised.
Naomi Klein didn't start the protest, but she used her contacts and her celebrity to make it more effective. The focus is on her because she is today one of the most prominent Jewish intellectuals in the world, and she is starting to be vocal in her criticism of Israeli human rights violations. She is risking a lot to speak out so passionately on this subject. I hope that the pile-on of angry Jewish males will not stop her or others of her generation from continuing to speak out so that the global community, especially the Palestinians, know that not all Jews believe that Israel is above international law because of the horror thatwas inflicted on our people by the Nazis.
The Jewish tradition in which I was raised answers the Holocaust by working to build a world where that kind of violence will never happen again, not only to the Jews but to all peoples. Protesting the celebration of Israel at a film festival is part of that tradition.
National Post
#Cluetrain @10
Posted by John Martz on Drawn! The Illustration and Cartooning Blog |
19th century bike tricks
...and what a interesting story! :-)
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