Cindy Milstein on Mending the World As Jewish Anarchists
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40 of 40 The Final Straw is a weekly anarchist and anti-authoritari- an radio show bringing you voices and ideas from struggle around the world. Since 2010, we’ve been broadcasting from AN INTERVIEW WITH occupied Tsalagi land in Southern Appalachia (Asheville, NC). We also frequently feature commentary (serious and humors) by anarchist prisoner, Sean Swain. CINDY MILSTEIN ON MENDING THE WORLD AS JEWISH ANARCHISTS You can send us letters at: The Final Straw Radio PO Box 6004 Asheville, NC 28816 USA Email us at: [email protected] or [email protected] To hear our past shows for free, visit: https://thefinalstrawradio.noblogs.org THE FINAL STRAW RADIO - Aired On June 20, 2021 2 of 40 39 of 40 TFSR Could you introduce yourself for the listeners? Your name and pro- liberatory. Queer liberation. Jewish liberation sounds weird. But I nouns and any other information that you’d like people to know about you? do want like a liberatory-ness within our Judaism and our Jewish- ness as radicals and anarchists and queers, you know? I wanted it to Cindy Milstein First, I really want to thank you for having me on the be bold and beautiful, and assertive in a way of beauty. But not just Final Straw and preparing so well ahead of time for this. My name for Jews, I really, I hope. I’ve been really happy. Because one thing I is Cindy Milstein. And I use they or he for pronouns. And yeah... was trying to do with this was to not just have this be something for prior to the pandemic, I was doing a lot of anarchist organizing, Jews, to have the anthology really show interconnections of strug- including anarchist summer school, and was part of the Montreal gles and identities. Jews are all colors, all languages, all places, there Bookfair Collective. And I focus a lot on doing care, solidarity and are no borders within Judaism. If we don’t see that enough, we push grief projects. And I also do books! So I’m on the show today about ourselves harder. I’m not saying that it’s perfect at all. But there is no homogeneous Jew. And that points to this beauty of “we are all the latest anthology I just did. things across all borders.” And including beyond just Judaism. So TFSR Yeah, I was really excited about this book: “Nothing So Whole as a I hope... I feel like it touches people on this other level outside of Broken Heart - Mending the World as a Jewish Anarchist” which is out being a Jewish anarchist. with AK Press. Particularly for me as like a queer anarchist Jew to see But I’m also really, really appreciative. I feel the same way. I all this writing that you put together by people who are navigating those really want to acknowledge and thank all the 40 or more people that things being queer, anarchist, and Jewish. And I think the book provides a really beautiful take on all the kinds of feelings that I’ve tried to work contributed to it. I’ve been really touched by how many people are through for myself, and my relationship to Jewishness, and the book reading it and saying “Oh wow. I feel. I feel seen for what I’ve been as a whole makes a case for how Jewishness fits into queerness and struggling with as a queer, feminist, non binary Jewish anarchists.” anarchism... As an ethical, political way of living in this world, which is Who is trying to be part of this resurgent, beautiful, bold new thing also the way that I’ve heard you define anarchism before that I find really that’s been coming out and creating this of anarchism with other helpful. But before we dive into some of the stuff in the book, I want to just talk... mention, you know, the recent widespread attention given to Israel’s anarchists that are coming to their senses of who they are togeth- violent occupation of Palestine. It always comes up now and again, in the er. And it’s just really touching to see people. That’s what I want. I mainstream media, but we know that this is an ongoing thing... the state’s want us all to see ourselves. The fullness of ourselves more. That’s genocidal treatment of Palestinians. So I wanted to ask for your thoughts the title. There’s Nothing So Whole as a Broken Heart. We’re all so on how Jewish anarchist specifically can speak out and respond to the brokenhearted by this world because we should be. But I want us ongoing Palestinian struggle for liberation. to be whole in that too. So I’m loving that you and other people are responding to it that way. Cindy Yeah, I also wanted to start off and saying that my heart is really heavy with all the Palestinians who are having to deal with... TFSR Well, thank you so much. yet again, massive amounts of death and destruction. It’s too bad this keeps happening. And I was thinking about how as Jewish Cindy Thank you so much for having me on this. anarchists, you know... maybe this plays into, in a way, why the anthology came out too... And why there’s a resurgence of sort of Jewish anarchism... I was thinking about a lot of people that were anarchists or anarchistic who did something called the Internation- al Solidarity Movement. Was that like 20 years ago or something? Mostly? And people would go to the occupied territories and help The Final Straw Radio / Cindy Milstein & Mending The World As Jewish Anarchists The Final Straw Radio / Cindy Milstein & Mending The World As Jewish Anarchists 38 of 40 3 of 40 enough. They’re outside of the... so it’s too bad that we have to take with olive harvests and be there as, you know, bodies in solidar- on that sort of self doubt about ourselves. ity doing both contributing through to helping Palestinians with It does become hard to sustain them sometimes. I really things they needed, also being bodies against the Israeli state. hope with this Anthology, and almost everything I do to really Anarchists Against The Wall was another project. Again, emphasize, like, all we really have is each other in the solidarity not everyone was anarchists in it, but it was Israeli, including more than anything to me is... if we don’t stick by each other, we anarchist Jews. So there has been a tradition of Jewish anarchists don’t have anything else with each other. Maybe we’ll feel more of engaging in really tangible direct action and solidarity in Palestine, enough if we try harder to be there for each other in ways in the and the State of Israel. And then you kind of flash forward and the fullness of who we are. I don’t know. For me, I want to hear other past few years... I was thinking about this a lot. It’s not, again, by at people point out antisemitism, so it isn’t just Jews. I want to hear all anarchists but some Jewish anarchists have been really involved people that are not queer. I want everyone to not have to be their in groups like “If Not Now”, and “Jewish voices for Peace” and other own advocate, as it were. So maybe that’s another way we don’t feel groups like that. And that have been doing a lot of work within Jew- enough because we all just feel sort of invisibilized by each other, ish institutional structures in larger Jewish communities on Turtle which I think is sad, you know? Island, and other places to try to switch away from this conflation If we were more acknowledged, like, celebratory of each of Judaism with Zionism and there’s been a lot of groundwork. other. But I think it’s really going in that direction. I really do. I feel So then we come to this moment. I don’t know, it’s just like the last few years there’s been so much collective trauma, so felt really powerful to watch! It’s been really moving. The solidar- quickly, targeting so many people. Like every day now almost. The ity demonstrations are massive. They were instantaneous and in past few years if you think how many white supremacist murders, so many places. But just the one I went to, which wasn’t huge, in assaults on people. They pretty much have killed now every cate- Pittsburgh. I felt this even there with a few 100 people. It was, you gory of humanity except themselves.. I think we’re all starting to know... Muslims, Jews, Palestinians, Christians, anarchists. And it go into spaces, each time, unfortunately. I don’t want that to hap- felt so much a deeper form of solidarity, where it wasn’t as unusual pen, for us to see that. Then I start realizing we’re like, “Oh, we are in a way for there to be people coming there with the fullness of enough because we start seeing each other. We are enough because who they were in a solidarity. It just felt really moving. And myself we’re there for each other.” So, yeah, maybe we’ll start getting past included in that I and a couple other queer Jewish anarchist de- that. When we all try to be more of ourselves to each other too. cided to make some banners and one of them we made there was “Solidarity With Palestine.