Jews Step Forward
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The Link www.ameu.org Page 1 Published by Americans for The Link Middle East Understanding, Inc. Volume 52, Issue 1 Link Archives: www.ameu.org January-March 2019 Jews Step Forward By Documentary Filmmaker Marjorie Wright The Link www.ameu.org Page 2 AMEU Board of Directors Jane Adas, President About This Issue Elizabeth D. Barlow Earlier this year I was invited to a showing of the documentary film Edward Dillon Jews Step Forward. Henrietta Goelet John Goelet At the end, with the film credits running, I recall whispering to the Richard Hobson,Treasurer person next to me that it was the most powerful documentary I had Anne R. Joyce, Vice President seen on the subject of Jewish-American support for Palestinian rights. Janet McMahon This was not yet another “talking heads” shoot. Rather, it wove the John F. Mahoney, Ex. Director biographies of the individuals interviewed with historic footage of the Darrel D. Meyers events that shaped their lives: from the Holocaust to the Nakba, from Brian Mulligan Kristallnacht to Israel’s military occupation. Daniel Norton Thomas Suárez And not only had I not heard of the film, I didn’t recognize the name of the filmmaker. All the more surprising since, as Google President-Emeritus would later enlighten me, Marjorie Wright, in 2008, wrote and co- Robert L. Norberg produced “Voices from Inside, Israelis Speak,” which received the Arpa Foundation’s Armin T. Wegner award for its promotion of social AMEU justice and human rights. And, again, in 2013, Marjorie was executive National Council director of “Voices Across the Divide,” that chronicled the Palestinian Kathleen Christison narrative of loss, occupation, statelessness and immigration to the Henry Clifford Paul Findley United States. Moorhead Kennedy My first impulse was to send a DVD copy of Jews Step Forward Ann Kerr Nancy Lapp to every one of our subscribers. But that was impractical, not to Mary Norton mention costly. So we decided to invite Marjorie to write a Link article Don W. Wagner informing our readers why she made the documentary, and why she James M. Wall considers it her most important work. Then, for those readers who would like a copy of the DVD, we would make it available for $9.00, essentially the cost of postage and handling. AMEU (ISSN 0024-4007) grants permission to reproduce material For information on ordering Jews Step Forward, see page 15. from The Link in part or in whole. AMEU must be credited and one John F. Mahoney copy forwarded to our office: Executive Director 475 Riverside Drive, Room 245 New York, NY 10115 Tel: 212-870-2053 fax: 212-870-2050 email: [email protected] website: www.ameu.org The Link www.ameu.org Page 3 J e w s S t e p F o r w a r d B y M a r j o r I e W r I g h t ithin every film there’s a story beyond the engagement and educational levels increased inside the narrative itself and the filmmaking process. community, as did an expanding consciousness for social WThere is a compulsion, a reason to devote the justice. The children and grandchildren of some of those considerable resources necessary and seemingly endless Jewish immigrants did not abandon those roots and went hours over several years, to create that visual message. on to be part of the “New Jewish Left” of the 1960s and Nowhere is this more true than with the documentary and ‘70s, the ”New Jewish Agenda” in the 1980s, as well as the with this issue in particular. Anti-Apartheid movement supporting indigenous South Africans, and the Feminist, Gay and Civil Rights Movements For me, the genesis for Jews Step Forward traces back to nationally. 1988 with the beginning of the First Intifada and moves through a self-education regarding Jewish social justice This has dovetailed with reinterpretations of Jewish liturgy, and its current re-awakening within that community to fuse with those activist causes. The concept of “Tikkun regarding Israel. Olam” — work to heal and transform the world — emerged from a prayer in the middle of the 20th century, to be the A large proportion of American Jews today trace their roots motto of a new generation’s self-understanding. through Ellis Island and the Yiddish speaking working class wave from 1880 to the early 1920s. Landing in New York Shlomo Bardin advanced the idea that Tikkun Olam should with few resources and in search of work, many became move beyond a religious abstraction and into an active part of that hard fought struggle on behalf of organized obligation “to work toward a more perfect world.” While labor, women’s suffrage and equal rights as a religious later also assuming a role in Kabbalah, Tikkun Olam brought minority. That is a shared solidarity, which has survived, together the synagogue with secular branches of a new even as religious observance has thinned — a kind of generation, joined in common cause. cellular memory shaping Jewish political loyalties today. Jewish social justice is not a modern concept however, but Early Jewish organizers, like British immigrant Samuel one with roots in communitarian medieval Jewish society, Gompers, who in the 1880s championed craft unionism Judaism’s value-based foundation, and the life, work and and founded the American Federation of Labor, which he influence of Eastern European Orthodox Rabbi Salanter. led until 1924, wielded enormous influence. In the 19th century, Rabbi Yisrael ben Ze’ev Wolf Lipkin The power of Jewish leadership created and sustained a (1809-1883), known as Rabbi Salanter, was the founder of force inside that organization and as a model for others. a new movement termed Musar. The word Musar literally The Socialist Labor Party, United Hebrew Trades, the Yiddish means instruction, discipline or conduct, but the Rabbi socialist press, Russian Bundists, Amalgamated Clothing applied that concept to ethical development. Believing Workers, International Ladies Garment Workers Union and that ethical consciousness and actions were closely tied Emma Lazarus Clubs all had Jewish leadership and played to spiritual enlightenment, ritual observance was empty a role in labor and social justice issues. The Socialist United without it. Musar thought was and is an important Hebrew Trades, a Federation of Jewish unions, numbered foundation for Jewish social justice, and its resurgence some 250,000 members in 1913. today has brought a new generation of secular Jews closer to their religious roots. As Jews climbed the economic ladder, political The Link www.ameu.org Page 4 Originally, Zionist institutions mirrored in many ways the manage their image and ’brand.’ initiatives spearheaded by the Jewish labor movement In Jews Step Forward, every interviewee began as a in Europe and America. In the U.S., the Workman’s Circle devoted follower of the state of Israel, investing their network of services included health care programs, old collective hope in the idea of European Jews rising from age homes, schools, libraries, summer camps, sports the ashes of genocide to create a safe haven and utopian teams, women’s clubs, reading circles, orchestras etc. It society inside the Middle East. represented Jewish culture and values, but without religion. This was also the essence of Labor Zionism’s model at its It is almost impossible to overstate how deeply the Jewish outset. community internationally wanted to believe collectively in this abstract construct and how As the communitarian kibbutz difficult and painful it is for many movement and the Israeli Labor In Jews Step Forward, to relinquish a beautiful myth Party have eroded with the and see clearly the reality of Israel rise of Israel’s hard Right, along every interviewee began as a today. with an increasingly violent military necessary to maintain devoted follower of Each interviewee reflects upon the Occupation, Israel’s shared his or her own journey from that consciousness with American deeply socialized ‘group think’ to liberals has dwindled. the state of Israel a ‘eureka moment,’ where they were compelled to leave hasbara Today, a growing number [Zionist propaganda] behind. of young Western Jews do not want to identify with Israel, irrespective of the notable cultural, academic, and For some, it felt intensely painful and tragic, while others intellectual achievements that Israel has developed. Their manifested anger and shame. For still others, it was a call issue is really with Zionism, by definition exclusionary and to action, to shed hypocrisy and define Israel with the supremacist. As Yosef Weitz of the Jewish National Fund same standards of deep commitment to human rights, wrote on 20 March 1941: “The complete evacuation of the social, and political justice, which defined who they are country [Palestine] from its other inhabitants and handing as Jews. Dorothy Zellner said: ”I could not work to make it over to the Jewish people is the answer.” sure that Black people in Mississippi had the right to vote and then turn around and be supportive of a state where Today, what was termed solidarity has been expanded into every citizen does not have equal rights before the law…. political intersectionality, which recognizes Palestinians as We’re human beings, and we refuse to be stampeded by indigenous peoples. Even Moment Magazine, co-founded so-called group loyalty or blindness to Israel….It is not a by Elie Wiesel, in 2016 ran a cover story entitled: “How the privilege to fight to change our community. It is a moral Black Lives Matter and Palestinian Movements Converged.” imperative. “ Moment has conducted symposiums on topics which would have been untouchable before: “Can Religious Some experienced their ‘eureka moment’ in the late ‘40s, Pluralism and an Official Rabbinate Coexist in Israel?”, “What some during the 1967 Six Day War, others in the ‘70s or ‘80s, Does it Mean to be Pro-Israel Today?”, and “Is There Such a and with two writers as late as 2006.