Dear Reader,
The war in Israel and Gaza dominates our reporting this week.
Staff Writer Steve Lipman explores the fault lines beginning to open in the American Jewish community as groups on the left voice concern over the loss of life in Gaza while others continue to solidly support Israel's position.
NEW YORK
Fault Lines Open As Civilian Deaths Mount
Jewish left voices concern over loss of life as polls show strong support for Israel.
Steve Lipman
Staff Writer
Thousands of pro-Israel supporters rallied Sunday in Times Square. Getty Images
The divisions in the Jewish community over the war in Gaza broke into the open this week as the number of Israeli soldiers killed reached 27 by Tuesday night and the number of Palestinian deaths neared 600.
And as those fault lines were laid bare, it touched off a debate over the nature of “proportionality” in wartime.
As a wide swath of the Jewish community rallied behind Israel in its bid to take out Hamas’ tunnels, and as polls showed that Americans were solidly backing Israel in its ground incursion, groups on the Jewish left were expressing concern over the mounting Palestinian civilian deaths.
Partners for Progressive Israel (formerly Meretz-USA) late last week urged the international community to “push for an immediate cease-fire” in the Israel-Hamas fighting, and even pressed Israel to “unilaterally” suspend its military actions against Gaza. “The situation,” in which the casualties suffered among Palestinians greatly outnumber those of Israelis, “has become more dire,” stated a press release issued by the group.
J Street, the Washington-based “pro-Israel, pro-peace” organization, posted a blog that “categorically oppose[s] calls for the reoccupation of the Gaza Strip as the goal of [Israel’s current] operation” and expressed “concern” about “the mounting civilian death toll” in Israel.
The group also pulled out of a community rally in support of Israel this week because the roster of speakers, organized by the city’s Jewish Community Relations Council, “did not include a pro-Israel, pro-peace perspective” and that “there was no voice for our concerns about the loss of human life on both sides.”
As the civilian casualties in Gaza have mounted, the issue of proportionality has increasingly entered the public discussion. In England, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said the “Israeli response” to years of Hamas rocket fire from Hamas “appears to be deliberately disproportionate.”
The questions being asked in the media and in parts of the Jewish community: Is Israel “over-reacting” to Gaza-based attacks? Do one-sided casualty figures strengthen the David vs. Goliath imagery that has dominated part of the Middle East debate for years, with Palestinians pictured as a beleaguered underdog? Does the Iron Dome anti-missile defense system give Israel, as some critics of the Jewish state have alleged, an “unfair advantage?”
Some of these questions surfaced in the Gaza wars in 2009 and 2012, but they seem especially pointed this time around in the wake of Secretary of State John Kerry’s quip characterizing Israel’s Gaza mission as “a hell of a pinpoint operation.” In response to such concerns, Shoshana Bryen, senior policy director of the Jewish Policy Center, this week issued a position paper on “The Doctrine of Proportionality” that cited scholarly opinions of what proportionality in warfare means.
“Proportionality in international law is not about the equality of death or civilian suffering, or even about [equality of] firepower,” she quoted Luis Moreno-Ocampo, chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, as writing. “Proportionality weighs the necessity of a military action against suffering that the action might cause to enemy civilians in the vicinity.”
“Civilian casualties are much to be mourned, but what becomes clear — absent the propaganda element or a shaky notion of sportsmanship — is that Israel has the right and indeed the obligation to defend its people, has the right to ‘win’ the war of self-defense that it is fighting, and has taken account of the requirements of international law regarding ‘proportionality’ and ‘military necessity,’” Bryen wrote.
“The word [disproportionate] surfaces a lot,” said David Harris, executive director of the American Jewish Committee. “What would be a proportionate response to the thousands of missiles that have been fired at Israel in this year alone? Does [proportionate] mean that unless Israel suffers the same number of casualties as the Palestinians in Gaza, that [Israel’s military response] is wrong?”
Sympathy for people who are perceived as underdogs is inevitable, said Ephraim Sneh, former Knesset member and deputy minister of defense, in a conference Tuesday afternoon sponsored by the Israel Policy Forum and the JCC in Manhattan. “In a confrontation between a tank and an ambulance, the ambulance will win,” said Sneh, who now serves as chairman of S. Daniel Abraham Center for Strategic Dialogue at Netanya Academic College. In other words, a humanitarian cause will trump strength in the eyes of many observers.
“We have bad PR,” he said, adding that Israel has not adequately stressed the steps its soldiers take to avoid civilian casualties.
“We are the strongest military force between the Caspian Sea and Casablanca,” Sneh said. “We shall take advantage of all our technological advantage. It is a high price to pay.” In other words, Israel is able to inflict a large number of casualties in a confrontation.
Several of the Jewish critics of the IDF’s actions in Gaza have cited “disproportionality” as a reason.
Nathan Hersh, managing partner of Partners for Progressive Israel, said his organization called on Israel to suspend its war on Hamas because “nothing can happen as long as people are dying. Force alone is not going to stop this conflict.”
But, said some Jewish spokesmen, the Jewish groups that have openly criticized Israeli actions in recent weeks are in a distinct minority.
“Their decibel level is much higher than their numerical [membership] level,” Harris said.
Americans for Peace Now, calling itself “horrified by the spiraling death-toll of the war,” “welcome[d] the Obama administration’s efforts to achieve an immediate cease-fire.” It called “continued fighting in … densely-populated [Gaza] a recipe for more bloodbaths such as the one we witnessed Sunday in Shuja’iyyah, a neighborhood East of Gaza City.”
And a dozen activists from the Jewish Voice for Peace and Jews Say No! organized a street-side rally Tuesday on Broadway outside the office building where American Friends of the IDF is based. Some participants carried signs that stated “No war in Palestine. Not in our name,” and others lay on the ground, covered by shroud-like sheets, impersonating Palestinian Arabs killed by the Israeli army. (JTA reported that nine of the protesters were arrested.)
Despite daily images in the media of Palestinian funerals and damaged homes in Gaza, Israel has retained the backing of American politicians and the U.S. public — both the Senate and the House of Representatives unanimously passed non-binding resolutions that support Israel’s right to defend itself and a CNN poll found that 57 percent of Americans call Israeli actions against Hamas “justified.” (See story on page 14.)
Even comedian Bill Maher, on the HBO Real Time program, listed what he called “8 Rock Solid Points in Defense of Israel,” including, “The Palestinians do not have the moral high ground.”
“I think there is remarkable unity” behind Israel, said Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. He spoke of a “marginalization of those groups who have been critical of Israel and cannot find it in their hearts, even at this time, to express unreserved solidarity.”
Most Jewish organizations have issued recent statements of support for Israel. The Anti-Defamation League: “No government in the world would allows its citizens to be subjected to constant rocket attacks.” The American Jewish Committee: “Israelis of all ages are in an absolutely intolerable situation, with only 15 seconds to reach a shelter for safety and security from the ceaseless, indiscriminate, round-the-clock Hamas attacks.” The National Jewish Democratic Council and the Republican Jewish Coalition issued similar supportive statements.
But Thane Rosenbaum, novelist and professor of law at New York University said he is not surprised that Jewish critics of Israel, largely from politically left-wing, intellectual backgrounds, have strengthened their criticism during Israel’s current fighting.
“It is the way of the intellectual that the idea is more important than anything else,” he said. In this case, that idea is “an asymmetrical bargaining position … in the conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians” that leaves Palestinians in a weaker position. Rosenbaum called this “community of Jewish intellectuals … fully invested in being critical of Israeli policies. I would expect them to double down” in their criticism of Israel.
“I would be very surprised,” he added, “that any intellectual in the far left camp would look at the last three weeks [of daily Hamas rocket attacks] and say, ‘This is my time to support Israel.’”
steve@jewishweek.org
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Even as the rockets were raining down on Israel, hundreds of American Jews were making aliyah, including a 23-year-old woman from New Jersey who plans to wed an Israeli soldier, now in Gaza, on Aug. 17. Staff Writer Hannah Dreyfus has the story.
NEW YORK
In Face of Israel Flight Bans, Aliyah Persists
War bride, toddler twins, and over 200 others land in Tel Aviv hours before rocket attack one mile away.
Hannah Dreyfus
Staff Writer
Still arriving, despite the war in Gaza. Courtesy of Nefesh B’Nefesh
Ilana Barta, a 23-year-old from Teaneck, N.J., walked off the plane at Ben-Gurion International Airport Tuesday morning with her wedding dress in hand. Her fiancé, a 22-year-old from Efrat, is an officer in the Paratrooper unit currently on active duty in Gaza. Though she hasn’t heard from him since the ground operation began, their wedding is scheduled for Aug. 17.
“You can’t let fear rule your life,” said Barta, who is the third child in her family to make aliyah, during a phone interview from her sister’s home in Givat Shmuel near Tel Aviv. A graduate of the Macaulay Honors program at Queens College, Barta will begin training at the Technion Medical School this fall. She and her fiancé, Akiva, plan to live in Haifa.
Barta is one of 228 new olim from the United States and Canada who arrived in Tel Aviv on Tuesday on a Nefesh B’Nefesh Aliyah charter flight. The flight included 100 children making aliyah with their parents, 54 singles, and 21 Lone Soldiers who will be joining the Israeli army upon arrival. (Two Lone Soldiers, Max Steinberg, 24, from Southern California and Nissim Sean Carmeli, 21, from South Padre Island, Texas, have been killed in the fighting in Gaza.)
Each new immigrant received a special booklet from the Ministry of Aliyah and Immigrant Absorption on security measures, such as what to do when a Code Red siren sounds warning of incoming rockets.
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The flight landed just hours before the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a notice prohibiting all U.S. airlines from flying to or from Israel’s Ben-Gurion International Airport. The notice, which was set to last for 24 hours, was issued in response to a rocket strike that landed approximately one mile away from the airport.
After the ban was announced, Delta diverted a flight en route from JFK to Tel Aviv, sending its 273 passengers and 17 crew members to Paris instead.
A slew of other airlines also canceled their flights to Tel Aviv Tuesday, including Air Canada, Lufthansa, Austria Airlines, Germanwings and Swissair, according to Israeli media reports, while El Al vowed to continue serving Ben-Gurion.
The ban comes a day after the U.S. State Department posted a travel warning on its website, recommending that citizens “consider the deferral of non-essential travel” to Israel.
“The security environment remains complex in Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza, and U.S. citizens need to be aware of the risks of travel to these areas because of the current conflict between Hamas and Israel,” the State Department warning said. The advisory noted the capability of long-range rockets launched from Gaza to reach Tel-Aviv.
While the new olim were still in the airport, a siren sounded, warning of the nearby rocket strike.
“We weren’t scared,” said Sharon Amar, 32, who made aliyah with his wife, Melody, and their three young children, a 4-year-old daughter and twin 2-year-old boys. The Amar family had been living in Delaware and will be moving to a small moshav near the town of Netivot, less than 10 miles from Gaza. The moshav is in walking distance from Kibbutz Nir Am, the site where 10 Hamas militants attempted a terror attack through the group’s complex tunneling system.
“We know this will end sooner or later,” said Sharon, who grew up in Netivot and served in the IDF beginning in 2000. “We have faith in the army, and we won’t stop living our lives because of terrorists,” he said.
The Amar family is not alone. Tony Gelbart, co-founder of Nefesh B’Nefesh, wrote on the group’s Facebook page that 1,300 olim made aliyah last week — “more than the missiles that they’ve sent” he wrote.
Yael Katsman, director of communications for Nefesh B’Nefesh, said, “We are hoping for a 5 to10 percent rise in aliyah this year,” despite security concerns. As similar to the prior conflicts with Gaza in 2012 and 2008-9, Katsman has seen “few cancellations” with regard to aliyah plans.
Though few olim have cancelled their plans, Tuesday’s flight was the first aliyah charter plane not to receive a ceremony of welcome upon arrival in Israel. The ceremony was cancelled due to security concerns. Still, a ceremony was held for the olim at JFK Airport before departure, and several dignitaries were there to greet them upon arrival in Tel Aviv.
“Today’s aliyah flight demonstrates the great resilience of the Jewish people and its determination to build the State of Israel,” said Nefesh B’Nefesh co-founder and executive director, Rabbi Yehoshua Fass. (The group, which is partially funded by the Israeli government, facilitates the immigration process.) “These olim, who are choosing to move to Israel in these difficult times are instilling hope, optimism and strength throughout Israel and the Jewish nation. The outpouring of requests we received to join the flight out of solidarity for the citizens of Israel is inspiring.”
The timing of her move was not lost on Ilana Barta.
“Everyone on our flight knows very well that we’re entering Israel during a harsh time,” she said. “There aren’t any secrets or deceptions. We’re making an active choice to go despite concerns.” She described the feeling of “strength and optimism” that permeated the plane. “Everyone here is fulfilling a dream,” she said.
For Melody Amar that dream began when she met Sharon. She had been in Israel only once before making aliyah, when she came to meet Sharon’s family shortly after their wedding in 2006. A New Jersey native, she met Sharon while working at a mall in Delaware. “And here we are today — it’s hard to believe,” she said.
Despite the tenuous situation, Melody feels prepared. She grew accustomed to the sounds of rocket fire when she served in the United States Army in Iraq in 2003. Still, being a parent means she is automatically on “high alert.”
“As a mother, I’m naturally going to worry about the safety of my children,” she said. “I hope this all ends soon so we can return to a quiet Israel.”
Unlike the majority of people waiting for the El-Al flight to board late Monday, Sara Seligson, mother of two from Far Rockaway, Queens, was staying behind. She was there to say goodbye to her 24-year-old son, Shimshon, and his 23-year-old wife, Rebecca, who were making aliyah.
“We were all sitting on the floor of JFK, waiting together,” she said. “I didn’t cry until the final goodbyes when they were boarding the plane.”
Even while knowing the strained situation that awaited her son and daughter-in-law upon arrival, Seligson never considered telling them not to go.
“I’m not scared of sending them,” she said. “Not one person on the flight backed out, and neither would I.”
She was confident that her children would “know the proper protocols” upon arrival (She, of course, could not know that a rocket would strike a mile away from the airport shortly after they landed.)
“They know the proper protocol. I’m sure their first experience of a siren will be daunting, but they’ll get used to it.”
Seligson stopped for moment, reflecting. “And maybe, someday, they won’t have to.”
editor@jewishweek.org
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Israeli Correspondent Michele Chabin spoke to many Israelis in Jerusalem who expressed compassion for the loss of innocent life in Gaza while insisting that Jerusalem must prevent Hamas from terrorizing them.
ISRAEL NEWS
On The Israeli Street, Toughness And Compassion
A cease-fire that leaves Hamas’ tunnel network in place is ‘too scary to contemplate,’ one resident says.
Michele Chabin
Israel Correspondent
A woman mourns over the casket of Israeli soldier Jordan Bensimon Tuesday in Ashkelon. Getty Images
A woman mourns over the casket of Israeli soldier Jordan Bensimon Tuesday in Ashkelon. Getty Images
Jerusalem — As she walked her dog in the German Colony section here on Monday afternoon, where the peace and quiet — at least for the moment — gave no hint of the fighting down south, Sarah Mizrachi gave voice to what a lot of Israelis seem to be feeling as the ground war in the Gaza Strip grinds on and the Palestinian civilian and Israeli military deaths pile up.
The Israel Defense Force, the 20something Mizrachi said, must be permitted to harm Hamas and its militant allies.
But her point of view was tinged with compassion.
“I’m horrified by the deaths of so many innocents in Gaza, especially children,” Mizrachi said. “But unless the Islamic extremists are stopped, who knows what kinds of attacks they could commit against our children.”
Moris Shukrun, a Jerusalem hair stylist whose shop is in the Talpiot section, referenced what was on everyone’s mind this week: a possible cease-fire, and the conditions that come with it.
Shukrun, 35, said that “Yes, absolutely” he would support a cease-fire — but only if Israel could receive guarantees “of no more terrorist activities and no more rockets. And if Hamas was disarmed and we couldn’t find and destroy every [terrorist] tunnel” — the expressed goal of Israel’s ground incursion into Gaza — “I’d still want an end this fighting.”
The views of Mizrachi and Shukrun seemed in line with the majority of Israelis as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon tried to hammer out a cease-fire even as Hamas rockets continued to rain down on Israel, and as graphic images of wounded and dead Palestinians filled newspaper front pages and TV broadcasts.
“The violence must stop, it must stop now,” Ban Ki-moon said at a news conference Tuesday with Egypt’s foreign minister.
President Obama and Kerry have urged Israel to show restraint in its ground operations, all the while insisting that it has a right to defend its citizens.
Yet despite these pressures — and the deaths of 27 Israeli soldiers as of Tuesday — the Israeli government appeared intent on continuing its mission to destroy Gaza’s underground tunnels and severely weaken Hamas, even as a debate broke out on whether a cease-fire or a reoccupation of Gaza was the prudent strategy to pursue.
“We’ll need to make a very complex decision to return to the Gaza Strip and take back security responsibility for the Gaza Strip,” Ze’ev Elkin, the head of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee and a member of Netanyahu’s ruling Likud party, said last week. “If we do not do it, the result is obvious. We can recover from Hamas, but if you want to bring real security to the people in Israel’s south, there is only one way to do it.”
But Israeli Labor Party Chairman Isaac Herzog sees a cease-fire as an opportunity to strengthen the hand of the more moderate Palestinian Authority. Herzog wants an agreement to give the Palestinian Authority control of Gaza’s border crossings, a step he hopes will lead to full PA rule in Gaza.
“We can move on to an international effort to broker a deal with this weakened Hamas whereby there can be a change in Gaza,” Herzog said last week.
For now, the government, backed by all but dovish Israelis, wants to “finish the job” it started in Gaza to prevent yet another round of armed conflict with Hamas.
A July 22 opinion poll by the pro-Likud newspaper Israel Hayom found that 77 percent of Israelis oppose a cease-fire under the current circumstances; 71 percent support expanding the ground operation; and 73 percent are satisfied with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s performance.
Analysts say much of this support can be traced to the fact that Hamas has targeted its attacks on the Israeli heartland. Residents of greater Tel Aviv have been forced into bomb shelters dozens of times, while sirens have wailed as far north as Haifa. That, coupled with the realization that Hamas built its cross-border tunnels to launch the kinds of large-scale terror attacks that were once so common here, has mobilized the public.
“The public is saying, ‘Enough is enough,’” Efraim Inbar, director of the BESA Center for Strategic Studies at Bar-Ilan University, said of the opinion poll. “The tunnels show the determination of Hamas to kidnap and kill Israelis. Furthermore, Israel was ready to accept the Egyptian cease-fire [which Hamas rejected]. The ground operation was the only choice.”
Tamir Sheafer, a Hebrew University professor and expert on the impact of public opinion and the media on Israeli government policy, agrees that Israelis are willing to stay the course in Gaza despite the deaths of so many soldiers.
“Right now the public in Israel supports destroying the tunnels because they see them as a major threat. People appear to accept that [the risk to soldiers] is part of the price Israel must pay to ensure its security.”
That, Sheafer said, is giving the government “leeway” to continue the operation.
Asked what it would take for Israel to agree to a long-term cease-fire, Jonathan Rynhold, a senior researcher at BESA, said, “The issue is more what Hamas will agree to, as their beef is more with Egypt than with us. If they agree to something close to the Egyptian cease-fire terms, “Israel will accept this.”
The Egyptian proposal includes opening the border crossing between Gaza and Egypt under the control of the Palestinian Authority as well as the payment of long-overdue salaries to civil servants in Gaza.
Rynhold said Israel has no desire to stay in Gaza a moment more than necessary.
“Once the tunnels are destroyed — which will be soon according to IDF estimates — there will be an exit point opportunity. As to whether this will happen, again it depends mainly on Hamas,” he said.
So far, Rynhold said, “their demands have increased during the war. The problem has been that the military wing has been making the decisions and sitting in their bunkers, as such they are immune from the feelings of the public in Gaza.”
When it comes to cease-fire terms, Inbar said, Netanyahu has room to maneuver “because he has been careful not to specify the toppling of Hamas as a goal, and I’m not sure we can get rid of Hamas, which is deeply rooted in Palestinian society.”
He said that Israel’s mandatory military service contributes to the widespread support of the ground operation.
“Many Israelis have military experience and understand this operation involves tragic losses, and nevertheless they continue to support it,” Inbar said.
At a falafel stand in Baka, a recent immigrant from Canada named Levy, who declined to give his last name, said he will be going into the army in two weeks.
“Israel should not accept a cease-fire until it meets all its objectives,” said Levy, 26. “Because what’s the use of having a cease-fire when two years from now we’re going to have to do this all over again, just like we’re doing now, and have been for the past six years.”
Back in the German Colony, Mizrachi shuddered at the thought of Hamas’ brazenness, and extent of the terrorist group’s tunnel network.
“The very thought that a band of terrorists could dig their way into a kibbutz underground and emerge in someone’s home or a kindergarten is too scary to contemplate,” she said. “Hamas needs to be stopped.”
JTA contributed to this report.
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Also this week, Orli Santo on a Facebook page called "Jews and Arabs Refuse To Be Enemies"; a conversation with David Blatt, the Maccabi Tel Aviv coach who will be coaching LeBron James in Cleveland this season; Pilobolus dance troupe uses an Etgar Keret short story about a dysfunctional family as its theme; and an Appreciation of Nadine Gordimer, the South African novelist and outspoken critic of apartheid who died this past week at 90.
NEW YORK
On Facebook, A Push For Tolerance Grows
‘Jews And Arabs Refuse To Be Enemies’ uses interfaith photos to show peaceful coexistence in action.
Orli Santo
Special To The Jewish Week
Two Hunter College students have created a Facebook page to celebrate understanding between Jews and Arabs. Via Facebook.com
A hashtag won’t solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But it’s good to know that even as rage and hatred continue to drive the conversation on the ground, on social media a movement for a saner discourse is growing.
Two weeks ago, two Hunter College students — an Israeli from Tel-Aviv and a Syrian from Damascus — created a Facebook page titled “Jews and Arabs Refuse to be Enemies.” They encouraged friends and family to post pictures of themselves, holding up signs that affirmed the motto.
The slogan “Jews and Arabs Refuse to be Enemies,” which has circulated in Hebrew for years, was recently revived through a joint effort of Israeli Jews and Arabs, who over the past few weeks have been rallying to denounce racism and promote Arab-Jewish partnerships in Israel. The slogan was later picked up by the Israeli left-wing protest movement, which is currently demonstrating throughout Israel against the offensive in Gaza.
In Israel, the call for Jews and Arabs to refuse to be enemies has been met with internal violence. Only this weekend, protestors in Haifa bearing signs with this slogan were beaten by right-wing counterdemonstrators. But the slogan’s Facebook page has taken on a life of its own, becoming a full-blown international social media campaign. During its brief existence, it already received over 4,000 likes on Facebook, was re-tweeted thousands of times and was mentioned by media outlets around the world, from ABC News in English to the Giornalettismo in Italian.
Part of the campaign’s success lies in the unusual stories it encapsulates. Take, for example, the interfaith couple that became the campaign’s unofficial poster children: In their picture, Sulome Anderson, a Lebanese-American, and her partner, a formally Haredi Jewish man (who asked that his name not to be mentioned here) are seen passionately kissing. They are holding up the sign “Jews and Arabs refuse to be enemies” between them.
“He calls me Neshama, I call him Habibi. Love doesn’t understand the language of rocket fire, occupation or airstrikes,” their post states.
Jasmine, an Israeli woman, and Osama, a Palestinian man, posted a picture with their young daughter. They are holding up a sign in which reads in Arabic, Hebrew and English: “We are a family. There is an alternative.”
While most posts bear less sensational trappings, they’re all deeply moving. Shirley Kramer, an American Jew living in Los Angeles, posted a picture of herself hugging her best friend, an American Muslim born in Lebanon. The picture was taken only a few weeks ago, in Israel, on her wedding day.
“My Lebanese best friend of 22 years came to Israel for my wedding,” she writes. “We are holding a picture of when we graduated from elementary school together. We refuse to hate.”
The two students who launched the campaign, 23-year-old Abraham Gutman and 21-year-old Dania Darwish, met earlier this year in a Model United Nations class in Hunter, where they were on the same debate team. They’ve since become good friends.
“Abraham is the first Israeli I really got to know, and it was very interesting for me to hear things from his point of view,” said Darwish. “We come from very different backgrounds, have different political views, but we could always talk about things.”
The campaign has a two-fold purpose: to normalize the concept that Arabs and Jews need not be enemies by default, and to present an alternative to the vitriolic discourse which has washed over social media in the past months.
“It’s not that I believe that if we’re all friends, the core issues will disappear. … But stereotypes and the incitement of hatred can’t be part of the conversation,” Darwish said. “We’re trying to create an online community where people with different political opinions could talk in a respectful and productive way.”
Gutman got the idea for the campaign when the online hostilities finally forced him out of Facebook, his main connection back home. “Every post was hate, just pure hate,” he recalls. He was taken aback by the offensive language of Facebook friends from right and left alike; and the aggressive replies he received from his own close circle of friends and family shook him to the core.
When Gutman realized Darwish was facing the same atmosphere within her social network, the two decided to act.
Getting people to participate in the campaign was harder than he thought, said Gutman. While many “Liked” the page and re-tweeted it, in the beginning no one wanted to post their own pictures to it. “People were afraid of their communities’ response. There’s a huge gap between just ‘Liking’ something and actually putting your face on it. … That would open you up for questions.” But more people joined in as the campaign received more media attention, and what was treated before as “radical” is now showing signs of becoming a new normal.
For Darwish, the biggest difficulty was creating a forum that respects both Arabs and Israelis, without appearing to normalize the occupation. She and Gutman agree on that point.
Reading the somber headlines from Israel, seeing the pain and rage boiling over on both sides, it would be easy to dismiss this campaign as a comforting piece of fluff. But even cynics would have to grant it one small but important success: despite the sensitive timing, so far no one has posted hateful or offensive remarks. Whatever criticisms people had were written moderately and with respect. “For me, this is refreshing, this is new,” said Gutman.
“We don’t think this campaign is an exclusive tool to battle what’s happening,” he continued. “We don’t think that if we all just get along and sing Kumbaya in Hebrew and Arabic, it will all be fine. But there needs to be a voice that said: ‘OK, we don’t have to be friends, but we definitely don’t have to be enemies just by default.’ That’s what we want our presence to become.”
Orli Santo is a correspondent for the New York-based weekly Yediot America. Her column appears monthly.
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THE JW Q&A
LeBron’s Going Home
Maccabi Tel Aviv coach David Blatt is heading to Cleveland to lead Cavs.
Alan Zeitlin
Special To The Jewish Week
David Blatt: Will face a more rugged schedule as an NBA coach that he did in Israel or Europe. Wikimedia Commons
David Blatt: Will face a more rugged schedule as an NBA coach that he did in Israel or Europe. Wikimedia Commons
In May, David Blatt coached underdog Maccabi Tel Aviv to a thrilling Euroleague championship victory over Real Madrid in overtime. In June, the Cleveland Cavaliers hired Blatt as head coach. This month, LeBron James announced he was bringing his talents back home to the Cavs. There will be an enormous amount of pressure on Blatt, who has never coached an NBA game, but the reigning Euroleague Coach of the Year is no stranger to pressure. He was the first American to coach the Russian national team, leading them to a bronze medal in the 2012 London Olympics. In a phone interview from Las Vegas, where the NBA Summer League is taking place, the Massachusetts native, who played college ball at Princeton, professional ball in Israel, and coached in Europe for more than two decades, spoke about pressure, coming back to America, and his new team.
Q: When you heard LeBron decided to come back to the Cavs, what was your immediate reaction?
A: Exhilaration.
Did you take his decision as an endorsement of your coaching ability?
I took his decision as an endorsement of the city of Cleveland, the Cavaliers organization, and his desire to come back home.
Do you feel a lot of pressure in being a rookie coach in the NBA and coaching the best player in the world?
I’ve been coaching for over 20 years. I am coming to the NBA as a coach for the first time. I’m thrilled and excited because for me it’s a bit of closure, growing up in the United States and playing in the United States and the opportunity to come back is just thrilling. I’ve been living in pressure situations for a long time now. Pressure is part of the game and is part of the competitive environment.
Was it hard to be the first American to coach the Russian national team?
Initially, it was emotionally very difficult. It was very, very different. But it turned out to be a love story on both sides and we had great historical heights that I’ll always treasure and cherish.
After your tremendous Euroleague championship coaching Maccabi Tel Aviv to victory over Real Madrid, there were a large number of anti-Semitic tweets. Did that surprise you?
I don’t read Twitter. But it doesn’t surprise me. I know the world we live in, as unfortunate as it may be. I can’t say I saw it first-hand, but it doesn’t surprise me, no.
Did you ever experience any anti-Semitism as a coach?
Yes.
In what form?
Verbal. Nearly physical.
What will be your biggest adjustment in coaching in the NBA? Will it be instant replay or rule differences?
I think just the schedule. My team with Maccabi over the last four years played close to 80 games (each season) but it was spread over a longer period of time. The NBA’s 82-game season is more condensed so it requires a special kind of process and a special kind of preparation.
Who is tougher to deal with: the Israeli sports media or the American sports media?
I don’t really care. I know that the media is part of our business. And I respect the media.
You studied English literature at Princeton. What was your favorite book you read there?
I am the son of a teacher. My mom was a teacher. She spent a good part of her life throwing books at me so I didn’t start reading when I got to Princeton. I was always a big fan of Greek mythology and mythological heroes. Probably that’s why I went into sports because it’s the story of heroes. I’d say “The Iliad,” “Instant Replay: The Green Bay Diary of Jerry Kramer,” “The Natural” by Bernard Malamud, and many others.
At the press conference after winning with Maccabi Tel Aviv, you said you could do more with less. Now you have the best player in the world. Do you expect to contend for a championship this year?
We’re gonna compete against every team, and ultimately I hope we’ll contend for a title. Whether or not that’s this year, we’ll just have to see.
editor@jewishweek.org
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DANCE
Cycle Of (Family) Life
A dysfunctional family is at center of Pilobolus dance troupe’s collaboration with Israeli fiction writer Etgar Keret.
Ted Merwin
Special To The Jewish Week
In “The Inconsistent Pedaler,” a mysterious stranger teaches a family’s teenage daughter to ride calmly. Robert Whitman
In “The Inconsistent Pedaler,” a mysterious stranger teaches a family’s teenage daughter to ride calmly. Robert Whitman
In their utter dependence and sheer vulnerability, children often keep dysfunctional families from spinning apart. But can children also provide the energy and drive to keep their family going? An acrobatic new dance by the modern dance company Pilobolus, “The Inconsistent Pedaler,” centers on a teenage girl whose family members lose all their energy and momentum as soon as she stops pedaling her stationary bicycle.
Created by the company in tandem with celebrated Israeli short story writer Etgar Keret and his wife, filmmaker Shira Geffen, the 20-minute piece is now running at the Joyce Theater as part of a program of Pilobolus works. When it was performed last month at the American Dance Festival in North Carolina, critic Susan Broili of the Durham Herald-Sun called the piece an “imaginative, multi-layered work” that showcases the company’s “dramatic flair and quirky sense of humor.”
Since Martha Graham partnered with sculptor Isamu Noguchi to create the sets for her pioneering dances in the 1930s and ’40s, modern dance in America has been frequently cross-fertilized by other disciplines. Founded in 1971 by Dartmouth College students, Pilobolus is named for the “hat-thrower” or “dung cannon” fungus that grows in animal feces and propels its spores with terrific speed. In recent years, Pilobolus has worked with a broad range of artists and thinkers, from magicians Penn and Teller to a robotics team at MIT to the head writer of the children’s animated TV show, “SpongeBob SquarePants.”
The troupe’s current executive director, Itamar Kubovy, was born in Jerusalem. Kubovy has worked in theater, dance, film and television; he co-directed the 2002 season finale of “The West Wing.” Under his leadership over the last decade, Pilobolus has collaborated fruitfully with Jewish artists. In 1999, the company brought in children’s book authors Maurice Sendak and Arthur Yorinks to develop “A Selection,” a Holocaust-themed work that was documented in Mirra Bank’s award-winning 2002 film, “Last Dance.” More recently, in 2010, the company worked with graphic artist Art Spiegelman to devise “Hapless Hooligan in ‘Still Moving,” based on early American comic strips.
When the girl in “The Inconsistent Pedaler” (Jordan Kriston) stops pedaling her bike, which is situated on the side of the stage, the lights (created by Neil Peter Jampolis) flicker and ultimately fade out, while the family members collapse. Only when a mysterious stranger (Matt del Rosario) teaches her to ride calmly can she keep the family on track. The power of the bicycle seems boundless, as is shown in one of the piece’s most indelible moments; as part of the celebration of the 99th birthday of the grandfather (Shawn Fitzgerald Ahern), he is hoisted onto the bicycle, and, in a kind of dream sequence, is launched into the sky surrounded by floating rubber duckies.
Kubovy called the bicycle a kind of “deus ex machina,” that governs a world riven by the family members’ conflict between obligation and freedom. The theme, he said, is how these opposing feelings “get mixed up with each other in relation to love.” After all, he reflected, “every family has a pedaler,” a linchpin in the workings of the family unit.
Enlisting Keret made sense, Kubovy told The Jewish Week, because his stories are “enormously efficient and abrupt in a poetic way” and because they possess a “strong sense of imagery that tends toward the surreal” — qualities that are also amply on display in “Meduzot” (Jellyfish), an award-winning Israeli film made by Keret and Geffen in 2007. In the film, three women who are strangers to each other — a newly married bride, a struggling waitress, and a Filipina healthcare worker — find their lives colliding in the wake of the bizarre emergence from the sea of a mute little girl.
As Keret and Geffen’s work does, Kubovy said, “Our work lives and dies by its imagery” rather than by its component parts. The new piece was developed through a series of multiple improvisations with the company’s two female and five male dancers that took place at Pilobolus’ studio in Connecticut. (The music, which is a mix of Latin Big Band sound and rock, was scored later to fit the action, as is commonly done in film.)
Reached by phone at their home in Tel Aviv, Keret and Geffen praised Pilobolus for nurturing what Geffen called a “very open and creative process that was something like child’s play.” Keret recalled that the whole team behind the piece was drawn to the idea of a family in which the members feel each other’s emotions. “If one person is tired and stressed, the whole family feels it,” and, likewise, “their joy is contagious — it’s like bicycle riding — someone can be going uphill and wondering when it will end but also being vigorous and excited about it.”
In the resulting piece, he said, the girl who wants her grandfather’s birthday celebration to be a success “takes the responsibility that no one else does”; he compared it to the way in which the member of a Jewish family “slides into the position of organizing a seder or building a sukkah. The grown-ups go through the motions, but the child raises a higher emotional bar, because the experience is so important to him or her.” Just as you can pedal a bicycle in various ways, with varying degrees of energy, he noted, “You can keep a family going in different ways.”
Keret has been outspoken on the current conflict in Gaza; he penned a July 14 op-ed in the Los Angeles Times in which he called for the word “peace” to be replaced by the word “compromise” in order to underscore the need for dialogue. Does “The Inconsistent Pedaler” have a political subtext? Keret recalled that he and Geffen began working with Pilobolus around the time of the rocket attack that occurred 18 months ago. But he insisted that the family in the story has no definable ethnicity, and that the piece “goes beyond belief and nationality.”
Indeed, he added, “We are each of us, Israelis and Palestinians, dysfunctional families who stop functioning well as a group when we feel threatened.”
Hannah Kosstrin, who teaches dance and Jewish studies at Ohio State University, said that the description of the “The Inconsistent Pedaler” (she has not seen it) reminded her of the work of Meredith Monk, a Jewish performance artist who works at the intersection of dance, theater, music and film — and whose works, Kosstrin noted, “often feature a teenager who has visions that determine the fate of the world.” (Monk also seems fond of wheels; in one of her works, “Vessel: An Opera Epic,” Joan of Arc is burned at the stake as six motorcycles roar around her.)
While “The Inconsistent Pedaler” may not have been created as a political allegory, Kosstrin conceded, its meaning — as with any work of art — will be largely determined by the way it is received by the audience. “A piece about a dysfunctional family will resonate,” she explained, “with an audience seeing it while a war is going on. Even if it wasn’t made in that milieu, it will inevitably be viewed in that context as a dance about trying to keep the world together.”
“The Inconsistent Pedaler” runs through Aug. 9 at the Joyce Theatre, 175 Eighth Ave., at 19th Street. It is on Program B. For tickets ($45-$69) and performance schedule, call JoyceCharge at (212) 242-0800 or visit www.joyce.org.
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NEW YORK
Tethered To Nadine Gordimer
For a South African-born ex-pat novelist, the Nobel Prize-winner casts a long shadow.
Anne Landsman
Special To The Jewish Week
It’s hard for me to imagine a world without Nadine Gordimer. With her death on July 13 at the age of 90, a towering moral presence has been lost. Though physically small in stature, she cast a long shadow — stern, fierce, endowed with an unflinching humanism. The depth and scope of her literary achievements coupled with her commitment to a more just society in South Africa earned her a Nobel Prize for literature in 1991, the first ever awarded to a South African.
She began reading and writing at an early age, turning to books for companionship after her mother took her out of school because she was found to have a rapid heartbeat as a result of an over-active thyroid gland. Her isolated childhood proved to be fertile ground for her imagination. By 15, her first short story, “The Quest for Seen Gold,” written for children, was published. Not much later, she began writing for adults, and published short stories in The New Yorker and other leading literary journals. Her first novel, “The Lying Days,” was published in 1953. From there, her career steadily grew, an impressive list of novels, short fiction collections, essay collections, plays, adaptations and other written works penned over seven decades. In all her works, she grappled, in one way or another, with the iniquities of the apartheid system and the crippling effects of racial discrimination on both the oppressed and the oppressor. Several of her novels — “The Late Bourgeois World,” “A World of Strangers,” “Burger’s Daughter” —– were banned. Never once, did she perceive herself as brave. She just got on with the job of being a writer, with vision and unswerving determination. In a 1987 interview, she had this to say, “Banning doesn’t hang over my head as I write. You get lost in the work. Thinking comes later…”
Despite its banning, “Burger’s Daughter” made its way to Nelson Mandela’s cell on Robben Island, the island prison where he was incarcerated for 27 years. Mandela read the novel and sent Gordimer a “letter of deep, understanding acceptance about the book.” In his autobiography, Mandela wrote that Gordimer had taught him about “white liberal sensibility.” Upon his release, he requested to meet her and they stayed in touch for years.
In addition to winning the Nobel, she won many other awards, including the Booker Prize, the W.H. Smith Commonwealth Literary Award, the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, the Rome Prize and the CNA Prize. She garnered at least 15 honorary degrees, was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, an Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and an “Officier de la Légion d’honneur” in France, among many other accolades. The list of her extraordinary achievements is long.
But what has Nadine Gordimer meant to me? Like her, I was born in South Africa to Jewish parents of Lithuanian extraction. Coming of age a generation later, I cut my teeth on her books. When I left South Africa for the U.S. at the age of 21, I bought “Burger’s Daughter” in a London bookshop and read it voraciously. Unlike Rosa, the main character, whose father was an anti-apartheid activist, mine was not. He was a country doctor who treated patients of all races and was as comfortable speaking Afrikaans as he was speaking English.
Still, as I struggled to understand my past and begin a new life in a new country, Rosa’s attempts to come to terms with what it meant to be Burger’s daughter, and her reactions to being away from home, in France, hit a nerve. These words will stay with me forever: “If I’d been black that would at least have given the information I was from Africa. Even at a three-hundred-year remove, a black American. But nobody could see me, there, for what I am back where I come from.” Perhaps this is what Mandela meant when he told Gordimer that through this book he understand “white liberal sensibility,” that whites like Burger and his daughter, Rosa, could feel as deeply connected to their country as my father did, and as I do.
Like Gordimer, I became a novelist but chose to write about South Africa from afar, beginning my serious writing career in 1994, after I voted for Nelson Mandela at a polling place for ex-pats that was set up on the lawn of the United Nations Plaza, in South Africa’s first democratic elections.
This is just one example of the myriad ways Gordimer’s words have shaped me. In a Paris Review interview, she talks of writers she admires, “At different times in my life I’ve — liked is not the word — I’ve been psychologically dependent upon different writers. Some have remained influential in my life and some haven’t…”
Over the years, I have been psychologically dependent on Gordimer. She has been a constant in my pantheon of writers, the invisible mentors who guide me when I sit down to work. Her unerring dedication to her craft and to describing political realities peopled with psychologically nuanced characters epitomizes what it takes to inhabit a writer’s life. Just below the surface, her sense of herself as a Jew has shimmered. A professed atheist, she identified as being Jewish through birth — “A Jew forever” without having any religious belief. In 2005, she told Haaretz that being Jewish is like being black, “It’s something inside you, in your blood and in your bones.” Although not always the thrust of the main story, Jewish characters and themes appear in many of her novels, a powerful minor chord in the saga of South Africa.
At the conclusion of her Paris Review interview, summing up her thoughts about what a novel or any story ought to be, she quotes Kafka, who said, “A book ought to be an ax to break up the frozen sea within us.” With her passing, that sea is a little more frozen. Those of us left behind will have to work harder, inspired by her great influence, to break the ice.
Anne Landsman, who lives in New York City, is the award-winning author of the novels “The Devil’s Chimney” and “The Rowing Lesson.”
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Our hearts are with the people of Israel, b'shalom,
Gary Rosenblatt
P.S. Please check out the newest version of our website ¬ faster and easier to navigate and read ¬ for breaking stories, videos and exclusive blogs, op-eds and features.
http://www.thejewishweek.com/
Between the Lines - Gary RosenblattWhen Journalists Lose Their Moral Compass
Los Angeles — There is so much to read these days about the Israel-Hamas conflict. There are constant reports from Gaza and Israel, with correspondents from around the world reporting on up-to-the-minute casualty figures. My suggestion for those who seek a deeper understanding of the roots of this war is simple: study the Hamas Charter.
Written in 1988, when the group was founded, it’s as shocking to read as it is easy to find. And it might be helpful to then read Israel’s Declaration of Independence, crafted 40 years earlier, for a contrast in goals and aspirations.
Drafted during the ongoing conflict between Arabs and Jews in the region, the Israeli document asserts the rights of Jews to a state in their national homeland. It also calls for freedom for all of its citizens, and extends a hand of peace to all neighboring states while pledging to work toward the advancement of “the entire Middle East.”
The Hamas Charter has a different vision. Its preamble states: “Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it.”
In then lays out in 32 Articles the group’s purpose: to destroy the Jewish state; kill Jews, whom it compares to Nazis and holds responsible for centuries of wars and catastrophes around the world; and establish an Islamic state. The Charter also asserts that the struggle between Jews and Islam can only be resolved through jihad and martyrdom.
A key difference between 1988 and today is that Hamas is no longer just a terror group; it is the ruling government of Gaza.
Is it the role of journalists today to point out documents that go back decades? Most of the reporting now describes the current conflict as the latest chapter in an old and ongoing story of two combatants caught up in a struggle they cannot avoid. Israel, having failed to make peace with the “reasonable” Palestinians (i.e. the Palestinian Authority), is facing the frustrated aggression of Hamas rockets and responding with military force rather than diplomatic creativity. And Hamas, trapped in a spiral of economic, political and societal hopelessness in Gaza, is using the only means at its disposal to act out and be heard on the world stage — through rocket attacks and efforts to penetrate Israel through the tunnels it has built.
Few, if any, report that Israel evacuated all of its citizens and military presence voluntarily from Gaza in 2005. The hope was that those in charge of Gaza would focus on building a safe and productive place for its citizens. But the result was for Hamas to use its proximity to Israel as a launching pad for assaults on the Jewish communities over the border. Israel’s mistake was in allowing those attacks to take place and continue without a forceful response from the outset.
Israeli political and military leaders know all too well that while the IDF intended a quick confrontation with the Palestine Liberation Organization in Lebanon in 1982, it took 18 years to get out of that lethal quicksand. The same thing, or worse, could happen in Gaza, where close combat already has claimed the lives of Israeli soldiers.
Mainstream media should be putting this conflict in context, explaining that while Israel seeks to defend its citizens against regular rocket attacks from Hamas, that terror group (as designated by the U.S. and Western nations) is committed in its core to wiping out Israel and Jews. What, then, is there for Israel to negotiate other than the details of its suicide?
The foreign news veterans who live in and cover the Mideast should know full well the history and the facts, but they strive mightily to present parallel stories of frustration, pain and revenge in the name of good reporting. In fact, though, “objective journalism” can also mean “lazy journalism.” It translates into letting each side in a conflict have its say, and leaving it at that, rather than digging deeper and offering the reader an understanding of the issue based on one’s knowledge of the reality and context.
That takes courage, separating from the journalists’ pack and opening oneself to criticism of being “unfair.” What is truly unfair, however, is to maintain the fiction, in this case, that the IDF and Hamas operate on some kind of equal moral footing when one side uses Iron Dome rockets to protect its citizens and the other uses citizens as human shields to protect its rockets. And when Israel mourns the deaths of innocent Gazans in harm’s way and Hamas deliberately places them there.
To equate the two sides is more than a dereliction of one’s journalistic duties. It is an obscenity that must be exposed and condemned, starting with the Hamas Charter.
Gary Rosenblatt has been the editor and publisher of The Jewish Week for 20 years and has written more than 1,000 "Between The Lines" columns since 1993. Now a collection of 80 of those columns, ranging from Mideast analysis to childhood remembrances as "the Jewish rabbi's son" in Annapolis, Md., is available. Click here for details.
NEWS and FEATURES
Israel's Winning Hearts And Minds
Polls show major U.S. groups backing Israel
Jonathan Mark - Associate Editor
Israel is not only winning the war in Gaza but the hearts and minds of Americans. Two polls conducted by CNN and the Pew Research Center reveal support for Israel that is solid among virtually every age, race, political party or religion. Pew found 51 percent of Americans sympathetic to Israel, only 14 percent sympathetic to the Palestinians (with the rest answering “both,” neither or “don’t know”), while CNN found 57 percent of Americans saying Israel’s military actions are “justified” and 34 percent saying Israel was “unjustified.”
Pew, which broke down its polling by more than 20 different categories, found that every category overwhelmingly favored Israel over the Palestinians by at least 20 percentage points, other than liberal Democrats and the religiously unaffiliated, who were slightly less supportive (18 and 16 percent over the Palestinians, respectively) but solidly in Israel’s corner, as well.
Both Pew and CNN found that the political parties remain sharply divided, with Democrats at 44 (Pew) or 45 (CNN) percent supportive of Israel, while 73 percent of Republicans supported Israel. Matt Brooks, executive director of the Republican Jewish Coalition, said in a statement that the Pew survey was a “confirmation of the Democrat Party’s shift over time away from support of Israel, especially at its grassroots.” In truth, there has not been any Democratic shift at all. The Democratic numbers are exactly the same as in 1978, the year of the landmark Camp David accords between Israel and Egypt, when 44 percent of Democrats said they had sympathies for Israel. That percentage that has fluctuated but is essentially unchanged after 36 years.
What has changed is Pew’s breaking down of both parties into conservative and liberal wings. There is no group in the country more sympathetic to Israel than conservative Republicans, whose sympathies for Israel are 77 percent, with 4 percent for the Palestinians and only 1 percent saying “both.” At the other extreme, 39 percent of liberal Democrats are sympathetic to Israel, 21 percent for Palestinians, and 6 percent saying “both.” Moderate Democrats came in at 48 percent (16 percent for Palestinians), and moderate Republicans came in at 64 percent (with 9 percent for Palestinians).
Steven Bayme, director of the American Jewish Committee’s Institute on American-Israeli Relations, told The Jewish Week, “Support for Israel has transcended party politics, regardless of the party in power in Washington, or in Jerusalem, for that matter. Since around 1984 we’ve had a problem with the left wing of the Democratic Party, but when it comes to actual results, the left wing has not prevailed.” A week ago, resolutions supporting Israel passed unanimously in the Senate and House. “Should we take that for granted? Absolutely not,” said Bayme. “These things can change,” as was felt with trepidation at the 2012 Democratic convention when a resolution supporting Jerusalem as Israel’s capital was vigorously booed down several times before being muscled into the Democratic platform by the convention chair.
“There are bumps along the political road, but it does not affect the overall trend of strong American public opinion regarding either Jews or Israel,” said Bayme. “Americans favor Israel as a fellow democracy, as the one democracy in the Middle East, as a strategic ally, and as a fulfillment of an age-old American fascination with the people of the Bible.”
The Pew poll (taken July 8-14), and CNN’s poll (July 18-20) were conducted shortly after the tumultuous weeks when three kidnapped Israeli teens were found murdered (June 30), a Palestinian teen was killed in revenge (July 2), Israel’s Operation Brothers Keeper, a West Bank police action to find the kidnapped teens aroused strong Palestinian resistance, and a war (Operation Protective Edge) that began on July 7 when Hamas launched more than 100 rockets at Israel’s cities.
In a second survey taken May 30-June 30, Pew found that Americans had “warmer” feelings for Jews than they did for any other religious group, and “coldest” feelings for Muslims. Respondents were asked to rate each group on a “feelings thermometer” ranging from zero to 100 (the warmest). Jews scored 63, the Muslims 40, with Muslims being the only religion that was liked even less than atheists. (Respondents, who were allowed to grade their own group, too, gave Catholics a 62; evangelicals 61; Buddhists 53; atheists 41; and Muslims 40). The Jews were also the least disliked of all religions by those polled, while Muslims were the most disliked. However, perhaps reflecting future trends, those under age 30 gave Muslims a neutral rating of 49, with older adults accounting for Muslims’ more negative ratings.
Despite the Democrats’ relative ambivalence about Israeli policies, Democrats and Democratic “leaners” expressed warm feelings toward Jews (average rating of 62). Jewish respondents gave no regard for any group’s support or antagonism to Israel. Although white Evangelical Protestants, the group most supportive of Israel, gave Jews an average rating of 69, Jews repaid the Evangelicals with an icy rating of 34, even lower than the 35 that Jews gave Muslims. All the non-Christian groups received warmer ratings from Democrats than they did from Republicans, with the exception of Jews.
The Pew surveys tell twin tales of the same story, said Bayme. “The Jews are an incredibly esteemed minority within American culture, and that is one of the reasons why Israel has such a high esteem in American public opinion, which has been true since [Israel’s founding]. Since 1945, the narrative of the American Jewish community has been the ever-increasing acceptance of Jews as Jews, and the ever-increasing marginalization of anti-Semitism. It hasn’t disappeared but it has been relegated to the margins.”
American popular support for Israel has been both constant and growing. According to Gallup, with every passing decade, support for Israel has grown. In the 1970s, the average support for Israel was 42 percent; in the 1980s, 46 percent; in the 1990s, 47 percent; and in six polls taken during the Obama administration, support for Israel has averaged 62 percent, with sympathy for the Palestinians averaging 16.5 percent.
All polls indicate that Americans have a larger perspective on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict beyond any single incident that might cast Israel in a negative light. For example, Israel quickly rebounded from even the public relations disaster of the Sabra-Shatilla massacre in 1982’s Lebanon War (when Israel’s ally, the Lebanese Christian Philangist militia entered a refugee camp in Beirut and murdered several hundred Palestinians). That month, Israel sunk to its lowest percentage of sympathy, 32 percent (Sept. 1982). However, even then, Israel still got more American sympathy than the Palestinians (at 28 percent). And Israel was back to a 49-to-12 percentage lead over the Palestinians four months later.
Nathan Diament, executive director of the Orthodox Union’s Institute for Public Affairs Diament of the Orthodox Union, said the surveys should “certainly be reassuring, particularly in context of a conflict where even isolated events can drive sympathy in one direction or another. But I don’t think we can take broad support for granted. Older Americans,” who remember Israel as an underdog, “are more likely to be supportive of Israel than younger ones. But most Americans see Israel as a reliable, dependable Western ally confronting fundamentalists who are enemies of the United States. That brings a lot of sympathy for Israel in a very important way.”
jonathan@jewishweek.org
jonathan@jewishweek.org
Food and WineThe Nine Days: What To Eat
Light vegetarian dishes work well when the weather is hot and moods are heavy.
Ronnie Fein - Jewish Week Online columnist
Light vegetarian dishes work well when the weather is hot and moods are heavy.
But even when there's not a war on in Israel, it seems disrespectful in the days leading up to Tisha B’av, a holiday barely mentioned by food writers and never spoken of in humorous terms.
Tisha B’av, which falls on the 9th day of the month of Av (beginning this year at sundown August 4, 2014), is a time for mourning, when we Jews lament the destruction of the First and Second Temples and a variety of catastrophes that have befallen our people.
Out of respect and in remembrance we observe a complete fast on the 9th of Av and there’s no meat at the pre-fast dinner. Meals during the Nine Days preceding Tisha B’av bear this mournful day in mind too and for observant families it’s likely that fish, dairy or vegetarian food will be on the menu.
That’s actually a fortunate circumstance at this time of year because these lighter, healthier foods are fitting not only for the season’s solemnity but also because unfussy meals and quick cooking are what’s needed during summer’s heat and humidity.
When summer comes, Tami Weiser thinks salad, as a balm for body and soul, but says meals during the Nine Days still have to pack a punch. One of her favorites is Fattoush Salad, which is light, but crammed with chick peas, which make it filling enough for dinner. Pomegranate molasses and sumac do wonders to round out the flavor of her version of this Middle Eastern specialty.
On the other hand, Chanie Apfelbaum’s family prefers something more substantial. She creates hearty foods that mimic meat so “that even meat-eaters can enjoy,” and suggests Tacos with Broccoli Slaw or hearty Portobello Burgers with Sun-dried Tomato Aioli. The same goes for Yosef Silver’s family, meat-eaters they, but who fill up with all sorts of interesting vegetarian and fish dishes such as Kedgeree, a dish Yosef was inspired to cook after watching an episode of Downton Abbey.
As for the actual fast, it’s important not to overeat at the pre-fast meal (too much food can make you thirsty after the fast has begun) nor after the fast is over (it overtaxes your digestive system). Dishes such as Sarah Klinkowitz’s Sprouted Beans and Rice are light, filling and also easy to prepare.
While there is no specific food associated with Tisha B’av, it is traditional to eat eggs and lentils, both considered foods for mourners, for the pre-and-post fast meals as well as during the Nine Days. Tamar Genger, editor at www.joyofkosher.com breaks the fast with Lentil Soup, which she says warms her belly quickly and “stops me from overeating and getting sick.” Yosef serves an interesting Quinoa Majadra seasoned with cumin and cinnamon. Mujadarah is also one of our family favorites. Sarah Klinkowitz serves it too, along with Grilled Red Snapper with Lime and Cilantro.
In our family we also eat a pile of eggs during this season. Eggs are loaded with nutritional value, are relatively cheap and easy to cook and there are dozens of recipes that are perfect for hot weather, pre-fast and post-fast dinners and daily meals too – like this frittata, which can be made ahead and reheated or served at room temperature.
Ronnie Fein is a cookbook author and cooking teacher in Stamford. Her latest book is Hip Kosher. Visit her food blog, Kitchen Vignettes, and follow on Twitter at @RonnieVFein.
Hide Servings & Times
Yield:
Serves four
Active Time:
15 min
Total Time:
45 min
Hide Ingredients
2 medium Yukon Gold potatoes
8 large eggs
3 tablespoons milk
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
1 medium onion, chopped
1 cup packed chopped fresh spinach
1 cup crumbled goat cheese
Hide Steps
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Peel the potatoes, cut them into small dice and cook in lightly salted boiling water for 2-3 minutes or until slightly softened.
Drain and set aside. Beat the eggs and milk together, sprinkle with salt and pepper and set aside.
Heat the olive oil and butter in a sauté pan over medium heat. When the butter has melted and looks foamy, add the onion and cook for 2 minutes or until it has softened.
Add the potato and cook for about 5 minutes or until the pieces are lightly crispy, stirring occasionally.
Add the spinach and cook for another minute, stirring occasionally.
Pour in the eggs. Scatter the surface with the cheese and stir gently.
Turn the heat to low. Cook undisturbed for 8-10 minutes, or until the bottom has set.
Place the pan in the oven and bake for 8-10 minutes, until the eggs are set.
TravelThe City of Lights, at night. Wikimedia Commons
Late Nights, From Paris To Madrid
Hilary Larson - Travel Writer
I once spent a night in the Place des Vosges.
That may sound romantic to those who know the lovely park at heart of Paris’s Marais quarter. But when I say I spent the night, I don’t mean that I slept in a plush hotel in the trendy Jewish district. I spent that night on a damp, uncomfortable bench by a fountain, because I had missed the last metro of the evening back to my hotel and had decided it would be interesting to wander all night in the City of Light. And around 4 a.m. — after hours spent strolling the quiet boulevards, pressing my nose against the glass of darkened boutiques and bakeries — I finally collapsed on that bench and dozed until the sky turned pink.
That night I saw an entirely different Paris from the tourist-thronged, baguette-waving workaday city. It is a testament to the enduring gentility of Paris that I was able to repose undisturbed in one of its most-frequented parks at a most unholy hour, slumbering in the glow of those fin-de-siecle lampposts. I woke to the sight of schoolchildren holding hands in a line: perfectly composed in that maddening way of all French youngsters, they marched solemnly past me in the dewy morn.
It was hardly the most comfortable of nights. Yet I recall it with a vividness reserved for those experiences so far removed from the quotidian that they become indelible. Traveling at night takes many forms, but it is invariably an experience distinct from the daylight routine, and therefore travel at its most intense.
Most people are asleep at night; many are not. To wander the streets of a nocturnal city is to walk amid the altered rhythm of these night-owls — waiters scurrying home after a late shift, street-sweepers with their whirring trucks, drunk, giggling party girls stumbling home on high heels. Even in the most teeming metropolis, the wee hours can be surprisingly vacant; plazas sit dormant in the 3 a.m. shadows, and the few souls roaming the sidewalks are aware of each other.
The Spanish, who have a particular fondness for the hours after midnight, call that space between night and morning the “madrugada.” And when a country has a special term for it, you know it would be a crime to sleep through it. You don’t miss much by turning in early in Sacramento, but Madrid is another story: 3 a.m. is the Spain of Almodóvar’s misfits and Picasso’s harlequins, a starlit, shadowy world of churro runs and smoky flamenco bars.
Exploring by night almost inevitably takes on a desultory feel, freed as one is from the constraint of schedule. There is no train to catch; no reservation waiting at the restaurant; no exhibition to be gotten through before closing time.
With so few practical options, night can be an efficient time to cover ground. If you are one of those lucky people who can sleep sitting up, you can nod off in New York and wake up in Munich or Marrakesh. Night trains are popular on the Continent as a way to save both money and time, but I swore them off after I woke up chugging into Rome without my wallet.
My sister — who must have been a Spaniard in a previous life — famously stays up all night, and manages to find the late-owl hangouts in the sleepiest of cities. In Los Angeles for family visits, she regales us with tales of her nocturnal escapades: 2 a.m. Jewish-deli runs, the last set at a comedy club, a nightcap with bloodshot-eyed screenwriters at Crave in Studio City.
Late night can be the best time to sample a city’s street food. Most of the real restaurants are closed, but a parallel dining world of food trucks and snack bars stays open to feed the hungry hordes as they empty out of bars and dance clubs. There are the aforementioned churros of Madrid, deep-fried fritters dunked in chocolate sauce; falafel in Tel Aviv; döner kebabs in Berlin; and whoopie pies the size of dinner plates on somnolent Martha’s Vineyard, where the Artcliff Diner food truck is like a midnight mirage.
My own late-night vice is swimming. What is perfectly reasonable during the day — slipping into a hotel pool, or bathing in calm bay waters — takes on a certain risqué quality after hours. Night swimming is technically forbidden in most places, but since I have so little company for those 11 p.m. laps, I generally go unnoticed.
Just as I did many years ago in Paris, on a park bench in the Marais.
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