Empathy

Examining Islamophobia

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We probably all start out prejudiced; having been brought up by people who look and act like us and believe the things that we learn to believe, we start by assuming that our way is the right way to do things, and if people do things differently they must be wrong. The need to grow beyond that childhood perspective is what led Mark Twain to optimistically claim that, “travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness.” But though we now live in a global village, in which the floods in Pakistan or fires of Russia are no further than a click away, an irrational fear of Islam or Muslims, Islamophobia, has been rising as fast as the floods, and spreading as fast as the fires. The most obvious examples are the inchoate rage some have felt at plans to build a Muslim community centre two blocks from ground zero, and the proposal to burn Qur’ans sponsored by a fringe Florida pastor. But it goes a lot further: last week Martin Peretz, editor-in-chief of The New Republic, wrote: “Muslim life is cheap, particularly to Muslims…

General News

The Myth of Ashkenaz

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True myth may serve for thousands of years as an inexhaustible source of intellectual speculation, religious joy, ethical inquiry, and artistic renewal. The real mystery is not destroyed by reason. The fake one is. You look at it and it vanishes. You look at the Blond Hero – really look – and he turns into a gerbil.

Media Tools

Report from the G20 Demo

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Saturday June 26th, the anti-G20 demonstration in Toronto was planned to start at 1 pm. I had been uncertain as to whether to go; originally a group of Tikkun Toronto veterans had planned an alternative demonstration, focussed around the slogan, “Open your heart to what matters more.” But the unexpected death of the brother of one core member, and difficulties around getting permission, and the predictions of violence and anarchy that the media had been purveying had reduced our enthusiasm below the critical mass we needed to make it happen. Perhaps, I thought, I don’t need to go. But the MSM descriptions of protesters against the G20 as “thugs and anarchists”, the spending of $1.2 billion on the summit, the revelation of new powers to arrest and detain that the police had been secretly given all made me feel that my right to peacefully gather with my peers was worth coming out to defend.

Empathy

The Shadow of Israel

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In my exploration of the BDS movement a week ago here, I talked about Margaret Atwood, who had chosen to not boycott the Dan David prize of which she was co-winner. She’s written a piece for Haaretz about her experience of Israel, that is a profound and eloquent exegesis of her Israeli experience. She admits that going into the issue she had “strayed into the Middle-eastern neighbourhood with a mind as open as it could be without being totally vacant”, and says, not unfairly, “The whole experience was like learning about cooking by being thrown into the soup pot.” So what does she conclude about Israel? The Israelis I met could not have been more welcoming.

Healing Israel/Palestine

Exploring Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions

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BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) is the increasing popular weapon of choice amongst many of us who oppose the actions and positions of the current Israeli government. It is also the Israeli weapon of choice against Gaza, though if pushed they resort to more direct weapons. At the heart of the debate over BDS lies the question of whether it is right to call for a boycott of Israel of when so many other countries do so many worse things. Some BDS opponents claim that call is the demon of anti-Semitism rearing its subtly disguised head. But as Hamlet noted, “Use every man after his dessert, and who should ‘scape whipping?”

Culture

Adolf Hitler, Michael Lerner, and I

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This is a story I have always known, a story I grew up with. It is the story of how in Germany on Kristallnacht, Nov 9th, 1938 the mob which was destroying the houses of all the Jews in Mainz came to the house in which my Jewish grandparents lived. There they were met by Maria, my family’s Catholic cook, who faced the mob and said, “Why are you here? You know these people and you know they have done nothing to harm you.” And the people left the house untouched.

Culture

Neil Innes: Pop Goes Your Culture

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All around the musical villageThe alarm-clock chased the vulture.The sands ran through the hourglass -Pop! goes your culture……………(old children’s song) “Good evening,” said Neil Innes, as he stepped out onto the Hughes’ Room stage last Thursday. “It’s wonderful to be.” He opened with “I’m the Urban Spaceman”, ended it after 30 seconds, smiled at the audience and said, “Thank you. That was a medley of my hit.”

General News

The New Palestinian Peace Offensive

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For years, Israel has said that it cannot negotiate with Palestinians because there is no leader who can represent Palestine and who doesn’t support violence. But finally, things are changing. It appears to be increasingly accepted by Palestinians on the West Bank that the path that offers them the most hope is a non-violent path of demonstrations against the occupation at home and the world wide push for BDS against Israel. Front and centre in this is the Palestinian prime minister, Salam Fayyad. As always in dealing with the Middle East, perception is as important as reality.

General News

Jews Against the Israeli Government

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There’s climate change happening all over the world, and everywhere melting glaciers calve icebergs at an unprecedented rate. (“Iceberg”? Isn’t that a Jewish name?) One particular glacier that’s disappearing fast is the unified and monolithic support that Jews outside of Israel have always given to whatever the Israeli government of the day wanted to do. It has been a truism for years that there was far harsher criticism of Israeli governments from Jews within Israel than from Jews outside of it. But now, for the first time significant numbers of diaspora Jews (and fellow travellers) are opposing the Israeli government, and doing so because they see the current expansionist policy as hugely harmful to any chance of Israeli survival.

General News

Wrestling with Passover

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As I prepare to go to friends to celebrate Passover sedar, I’ve been thinking about what it means to be Jewish. I have increasingly been feeling comfortable with the people with whom I celebrate, part of which is that they too are more concerned with exploring questions than with repeating simple answers. One of the questions is what is being celebrated: is it exclusively that God saves the Jews, (Hey Pharoah! We own the podium!) or is it a more universal celebration of the unforeseen liberation from slavery to freedom, an archetypal celebration for all who are oppressed?These days I have my most stimulating arguments about being Jewish, and about Jews with Philip Weiss, even if my part of the debate is in my head. Here’s an except from a recent piece, in which Philip and the non-Jewish wife of a Jewish friend of his are having this argument: I said, “It is a great liberation story and that’s what I like about the seder.