YOUR SHABBAT EDITION • NOVEMBER 13, 2020

Stories for you to savor over Shabbat and through the weekend, in printable format.

GET THE LATEST AT FORWARD.COM 1 GET THE LATEST AT FORWARD.COM

Opinion Editorial | Biden’s victory is good for all Jews By Jodi Rudoren

The most important thing Joe Biden said or did during rights, where the proper line is between religion and this campaign was talk about what got him into it: state, whether the Iran nuclear deal is sound. Different Charlottesville. Jewish leaders have profoundly different notions of how Jewish values should inform policies on abortion, gun “It was a wake-up call for us as a country,” Biden said control, climate change, tax cuts, health care, as he accepted the Democratic presidential nomination education, immigration and more. this summer, as well as a personal call to action. “My father taught us that silence was complicity. And I But we are united in our fears about the rise of could not remain silent or complicit.” antisemitic violence and antisemitic speech. And we should be united in our concern about the increasingly He was talking, of course, about the disgusting 2017 ugly expressions of racism, sexism and Islamophobia in “Unite the Right” rally in which white-supremacists the public sphere. We must all be deeply worried about carried KKK-like torches through a field while chanting the pernicious spread of disinformation and conspiracy the antisemitic trope “you will not replace us” — some, theories, and the increasing frequency of ideologically even more bluntly, “Jews will not replace us.” He was motivated terrorism. talking about President Donald Trump’s stunningly offensive reaction, even after a man killed a 32-year- Trump did not invent any of these phenomenons, but old woman by ramming his car into a crowd of they have all gotten materially, fundamentally worse counter-protesters, that there were “very fine people during his era. Arguing about whether antisemitism is on both sides.” more troublesome from the right or left is a distraction from very real and very serious problems: synagogues “That is not who we are,” Biden told Jewish leaders in getting shot up, campuses vandalized with swastikas September, on a pre-high holiday phone call. Amen. and Jews openly stereotyped on social media. Trump either paid lip service to these cancers or stoked them In his victory speech Saturday night, Biden spoke with dog-whistles and worse. clearly about who we need to be. “Let this grim era of demonization in American begin to end here and now,” Biden is not going to have an easy time putting these he exhorted. Describing the “battle for the soul of genies back into their bottles, especially amid a America” as one between “our better angels and our spiraling pandemic and deep economic depression. darkest impulses,” Biden said “it’s time for our better angels to prevail.” He also noted: “What presidents say Hate is a very powerful force. He is an elderly white in this battle matters.” man, an old-school politician, not the most inspiring of speakers (though he did well Saturday night). Indeed. President Trump may not have created new Though he currently enjoys a lead of 4 million in the divisions in America, or among American Jews, but in popular vote and may yet top 300 electoral votes, every rally and almost ever Tweet he highlighted them the bitterness of the campaign and the bitingly — and heightened them. He exploited them for close results in numerous states does not give him personal advantage. It was bad for the country, and a clear mandate. bad for the Jews. The next weeks and months will be critical in terms of There are genuine political splits among our what he says and who he chooses to surround himself communities on genuine political issues: how to with. Biden has promised to appoint the most diverse balance our Zionism against our concern for human cabinet ever — that should be generational as well as

Editorial | Biden’s victory is good for all Jews 2 GET THE LATEST AT FORWARD.COM

racial, and should include Republicans. referred to his constituents as “folks.”

It is no small thing that elected alongside him is the “We have to stop treating our opponents as our first woman and first person of color to become Vice enemies,” he added. “They are not our enemies, they President of the United States, who celebrated this are Americans.” Amen again. year’s 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage by I know that a quarter to a third of American Jews voted wearing a stunning white pantsuit on stage Saturday for the other guy. Another sizable chunk of our night. community would have preferred a more progressive V.P.-elect Kamala “Momala” Harris and her husband, Democrat. But Biden’s election is good for the Jews — Doug Emhoff, will also be the first Jewish family to live good for all Jews. in the Naval Observatory, a model for mixed-race and We don’t have to all agree on who should be president, mixed-faith people everywhere. or on any particular policy. But we can agree that, as It was as though she was speaking directly to my Biden’s first statement upon being declared the victor purple-haired daughter on Saturday night when Harris put it, “it’s time for America to unite” against urged us “to see what can be — unburdened by what antisemitism and other forms of hate. We should agree, has been.” as Jews and as Americans, that it is time to “put away the harsh rhetoric.” “Dream with ambition, lead with conviction, and see yourselves as others may not simply bc they may not We must agree that there were not very fine people on have seen it before,” she said. Amen. both sides in Charlottesville. We agree, as Biden told us before the holidays, that “that is not who we are.” My family and I were watching a friend’s Zoom-Mitzvah when the news broke late Saturday morning that On Saturday night, Biden quoted Ecclesiastes — or, as Pennsylvania, Biden’s birthplace, had put him over the we call it, Kohelet, which we traditionally read on top. We live in an overwhelmingly liberal town, and car- Sukkot. The Bible tells us there is a season for honking celebrations immediately erupted in the everything, he noted, adding: “This is the time to heal in streets. America.”

It was unseasonably gorgeous weather, and when we Amen. went outside, there were spontaneous parades and - people clanging pots on street corners. I saw a small child in footie pajamas twirling a huge American flag on Jodi Rudoren is the editor-in-chief of the Forward. his front lawn. My sister told me later that stores in Follow her on Twitter: @rudoren or email Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia had sold out of [email protected]. Champagne.

In other neighborhoods, I know, there was mourning and protests. On television, I watched divided crowds in front of the White House and the Pennsylvania capital.

President-elect Biden spoke to those people, too, on Saturday, saying he understood the disappointment — “I’ve lost a couple times.”

“It’s time to put away the harsh rhetoric, lower the temperature, see each other again, listen to each other again,” Biden said in a speech where he repeatedly

Editorial | Biden’s victory is good for all Jews 3 GET THE LATEST AT FORWARD.COM

Culture As we mourn , we honor the Jewish history of ‘Jeopardy’ By Benjamin Ivry

While we mourn longtime “Jeopardy!” host Alex Trebek, claiming that by moving the show from to who died on Nov. 8 at age 80, we also pause to honor California, producers replaced smart and “authentic” the ’s admirably constant quotient of contestants with show-biz types, while also dumbing Yiddishkeit. down the queries.

Since 1990, Billy Wisse has worked for “Jeopardy!” as While some Jewish contestants on “Jeopardy!,” like the writer and editorial producer, among other Bronx-born TV game-show producer Jay Wolpert, did responsibilities. Son of Ruth R. Wisse and professor follow show business careers, others did not, like Mark emerita of Yiddish Literature at Harvard, Wisse was Lowenthal, co-author of “Secrets of the Jeopardy! hired by then-head writer Harry Eisenberg, the previous Champions” who went on to be a writer about creator of answers to which contestants must reply intelligence and national security matters. with questions, in the show’s familiar format. Whether “Jeopardy!” questions with Jewish content When viewers think of Yiddishkeit in “Jeopardy!,” it have become easier over the years is debatable. Recent tends to be in terms of Jewish contestants who were puzzlers listed on an online database range from fairly gently and respectfully questioned about their elementary to challenging. backgrounds by Trebek. Last month, the following bit of senatorial lore was The “Jeopardy!” aspirant Rabbi Joyce Newmark from presented under the category THEIR BAR OR BAT Teaneck, New Jersey, explained that her usual response MITZVAH: to questions about whether it was difficult to be a Brooklyn’s Kingsway Jewish Center is where this future female rabbi was to say she didn’t know, as she has politician & Vermonter was Bar Mitzvahed in 1954 never been any other kind. Relatively more demanding questions were related to Trebek’s polite interest and gratification at responses Jewish literature, as in September, when under the went a long way to make Jewish participants and home heading PLAYS, the answer appeared: viewers alike feel welcome. Yet he did not originate the welcoming aura for Jews at “Jeopardy!” This Wendy Wasserstein play focuses on three Jewish siblings: Sara, Gorgeous & Pfeni The show’s first star, , who emceed the program from the 1960s through the 1970s, would read Even more incisive conundrums, also in September, from cue cards at holiday time: “I’d like to wish all were seen under the category THE NATIONAL JEWISH people of the Jewish faith a most happy and joyous BOOK AWARD FOR FICTION, including: Hanukkah, which starts tomorrow.” 2017 winner David Grossman’s “A Horse Walks Into a Such scripted interjections, preserved on NBC Master Bar” follows one of these funny folks losing it onstage. Books broadcast logs, are about all that remains of Fleming’s original stint, since NBC erased most of his An immigrant is the hero of the title tale of a Mark episodes. Helprin collection, this “Island” in New York Bay.

Fleming may not have helped his own posterity with 1995 winner “Mazel” takes its title from the word for the studio when he criticized the new format and luck in this language written in Hebrew letters.

As we mourn Alex Trebek, we honor the Jewish history of ‘Jeopardy’ 4 GET THE LATEST AT FORWARD.COM

Sometimes the references to books are downright the respectful presentation of Judaism on the show, obscure, as in July 2019, when contestants were given a Jewish educators have frequently adopted the query related to former British Prime Minister Benjamin “Jeopardy!” format to teach pupils of all ages. The Disraeli under the title BRITISH LITERATURE: multimedia Jewish Children’s Museum on Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn designed by Gwathmey Siegel Set in the 12th c. Middle East, “The Wondrous Tale of Architects includes a game show studio where visitors Alroy” is a novel about a Jewish conqueror by this can demonstrate their knowledge of Jewish lore in a author/politician “Jeopardy!” format.

Similarly, decades ago, “Jeopardy!” questions on On a more intellectually sophisticated level, Brad Yiddishkeit could vary widely in difficulty. So, in Young’s “Paul the Jewish Theologian” asserts: February 1987, under RELIGION, the self-evident answer appeared: “Studying the Pauline epistles has been compared to the popular television game show ‘Jeopardy!.’ To play Blown in Jewish rituals, the shofar is traditionally a horn this game, contestants are given an answer to a hidden of this animal question… By way of comparison, studying Paul’s correspondence is like reading answers without the Sometimes, earlier “Jeopardy!” questions involving questions. The student of Paul’s writings is forced to Yiddishkeit could be misleading, like this one from May guess what the original questions surrounding his 1987, which confuses the blood type AB with the correspondence really were.” Hebrew month of Av: In a 2016 blog, Rabbi Geoffrey Mitelman recounts how Spelled out, it’s a blood type; pronounced, it’s a month he aced his audition for the show with an anecdote of the Jewish calendar about how he had marched in a Memorial Day parade in Others were more obscure, like this factoid aired in Chappaqua, New York, alongside Bill Clinton. April 1987 under the heading HOLIDAYS: So determined was Rabbi Mitelman to find Yiddishkeit Wintertime Jewish holiday that’s mentioned in the New in his “Jeopardy!” experience that he even elevated the Testament but not in the Jewish Bible rote memorization involved as part of preparation with a quote from Rabbi Arnold Jacob Wolf: As it happens, Hanukkah is not mentioned in the Torah, since the events it celebrates happened after its text “Uniquely Jewish is the idea of memory as will. Memory was written. Whereas Hanukkah is alluded to briefly in is not seen as something that befalls a passive the Gospel of John 10:22 of the Christian Bible. Go know. consciousness. It is something purposefully appropriated in awe and love.” Some of the more recent non-Jewish “Jeopardy!” champions have met their Waterloo with the subject of The Jews who most inspire contestants on “Jeopardy!” Judaica. , second-highest earning may not always be the ones seen by the public. The contestant on the show, bombed out of “1 vs. 100,” a phantoms of departed family members have presided short-lived NBC quiz program, because he flubbed a over the success of some Jewish “Jeopardy!” question about the Jewish reggae singer Matisyahu. champions, like Matt Jackson who mentioned his grandfather Dr. Barnett Berman, a trustee of the The show’s all-time highest earner, , Baltimore Hebrew College, as an omnivorous reader produced a surprisingly imprecise compendium, who influenced him: “I remember at a Passover seder “Brainiac” in which he misidentified the Queens-born [my grandfather] tried to figure out who wrote the quiz show winner Herb Stempel as a “schlubby Torah and went on a long digression. He had a big Brooklyn Jew.” collection of books.”

Yet such missteps are rare. Reciprocally responding to Leslye Laderman, a contestant from last year,

As we mourn Alex Trebek, we honor the Jewish history of ‘Jeopardy’ 5 GET THE LATEST AT FORWARD.COM noted that while cleaning out her mother’s house Scribe some time ago, she happened upon a 1970s contestant application for “Jeopardy!” that was never I grew up with filled out. Laderman suggested that this application represented a kind of bashert, or destiny. Jonathan Sacks. What Although the much-admired Alex Trebek has his loss means for the departed, it looks as if in their imaginations at least, some Jewish contestants will continue to find a Jewish world. soulmate in the “Jeopardy!” program. By Julian Ungar-Sargon

On Saturday, Vice President Joe Biden won enough of the electoral college to make him next president of the United States. But Saturday will also be remembered as the day the Jewish world lost a spokesman the likes of which it has not seen in generations: Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, Baron Sacks Create a Future for of Aldgate, was niftar. I’ve known Rabbi Sacks all my life, and his eloquence Courageous Jewish and media presence were inspiring. But his true Journalism legacy was in giving Modern Orthodoxy a legitimacy and expansiveness it has been losing in the face of The Forward is the most significant Jewish the haredi world’s increasingly narrow focus. It was voice in American journalism. Our outstanding this influence, both inside and outside the Orthodox reporting on cultural, social, and political world, that will be most missed. issues inspires readers of all ages and Born in London in 1948, Sacks’ mother hailed from the animates conversation across generations. illustrious Frumkin family of learned scholars. He Your support enables our critical work and attended my shul in Finchley Central, and I remember contributes to a vibrant, connected global my father calling Jonathan to the Torah — “Ya’amod Jewish community. Ya’akov Zvi ben David Arieh!” — on his Bar mitzvah. My father was the gabbai, and Jonathan’s father one- The Forward is a nonprofit association and is time president. The shul was structured with pews supported by the contributions of its readers. facing each other in front of the bima in the Sephardi custom. Sacks’ father sat opposite my father, which aptly reflected their different views of Judaism: one a To donate online visit product of a rather pompous British United Synagogue (his father), the other a survivor, a Forward.com/donate continental gentleman’s Oberland view of Yiddishkeit (mine).

To donate by phone, call Jonathan went to Christ College while I attended the Call 212-453-9454 Hasmonean Grammar school for boys. At 14, I befriended him, and we would meet on Shabbat afternoons to debate Jewish philosophy with a number of others. These afternoon sessions would

I grew up with Jonathan Sacks. What his loss means for the Jewish world. 6 GET THE LATEST AT FORWARD.COM

last for hours, and no matter what topic we began with, July 2012, a group of prominent British Jews criticized we inevitably returned to the same central theme: Sacks for opposing plans to allow civil marriage for gay theodicy and the Holocaust. Already then, our own couples. But he also faced criticism from fellow right- distinct approaches to Judaism began to emerge, wing Jews who often referred to him as the “the chief mirroring the way our fathers were on opposite sides of rabbi of the goyim,” a slight referencing how the shul, yet still facing each other. comfortable he seemed in the company of royalty and other world leaders, at the expense of more relevance After school, Jonathan went up to Gonville and Caius within the Jewish community. College, Cambridge to study philosophy. But he had a sudden change in philosophical direction after a trip to They were wrong. His writing kept open an expansive New York and a meeting with the Lubavitcher Rebbe. space within the stricter Orthodox realms, even as He then pursued Jewish Studies at Jew’s College in other leaders have spent the past decades narrowing London, and a year of study in a yeshiva in Israel. He their lens. became the rabbi of the Golders Green synagogue in London’s most Orthodox neighborhood in the late 70s But I, too, had my disagreements with him, despite and then rabbi of the Marble Arch synagogue in central having grown up in near-identical spiritual incubators in London, before becoming the U.K.’s chief rabbi in 1991, post-War London. Sacks followed a classical path a position he held until 2013. based on a traditional, philosophical, rational view of Judaism. But a part of me was never able to leave the And he continued to be recognized; he was knighted by question of theodicy behind; my father’s experiences in Queen Elizabeth II in 2005, and awarded a Life Peerage the war loomed too large. For me, the post-Holocaust in the British House of Lords in 2009, making him Lord world could never be a rational one. I resisted Sacks’ Baron Sacks of Aldgate. Prime Minister Tony Blair called reconciliation of science and Judaism, rational Sacks “an intellectual giant” and presented him with a philosophy and Jewish thought, moral agency and lifetime achievement award in 2018. neurobiology.

Sacks’ impact has undeniably been enormous. He was I have over the years found myself more moved by the among the world’s leading exponents of Orthodox mystical and mythical strands of Kabblah and Judaism for a global audience. His views were Chassidut that focused on the experience of the divine, enlightened and informed by classical Jewish medieval as opposed to the more medieval approach, which philosophy, Maimonides, Yehuda Halevi and Saadia focuses on knowledge of God. Kabbalistic texts were a Gaon. He was deeply influenced by the Lubavitcher kind of healing for me, obsessed as they were with the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, who impossibility of resolving the problem of evil in the Sacks called “one of the greatest Jewish leaders, not world. Instead of a resolution, these texts proposed the just of our time, but of all time” and who he felt had mythic notion of an intra-divine rupture which required called him to join Chabad’s outreach mission for mankind to heal it through Tikkun Olam. This fit better “missing Jews.” He was also deeply influenced by Rabbi in a world where God appeared absent. Talking in the Joseph B. Soloveitchik, who Sacks credited with the name of God was for me an embarrassment. insight that “Jewish thought and Jewish practice were not two different things, but the same thing seen from But Jonathan Sacks never stopped providing me with different perspectives.” the most articulate version of the view I did not share — the view of a rational Judaism. That is what his loss Perspective was key for Sacks, who, like all other chief signifies most to me on a person level, that sparring rabbis, had an untenable position navigating the wide spectrum of British Orthodoxy. He frequently found partner from all those years ago who I was able to himself torn between the lackadaisical observance of follow in his writings all this time. The loss is immense, most of the United Synagogue membership (what for me and for the people he led. would be considered right wing Conservative in the - U.S.) on the one hand and the post war influx of stricter observant Jews on the other. The views and opinions expressed in this article do That tension would be reflected in his views, as when in not necessarily reflect those of the Forward.

I grew up with Jonathan Sacks. What his loss means for the Jewish world. 7 GET THE LATEST AT FORWARD.COM

Opinion Q & A | Black, deaf, and Jewish filmmaker Eli Steele is challenging how we view race

By Batya Ungar-Sargon

Eli Steele’s great-grandfather on his father’s side was quality expectations” and was “not eligible for born into American slavery. His grandmother on his publishing on the service.” Eight days later, the mother’s side escaped the Nazis, then went back and platform relented, saying the letter had been sent in rescued her entire family. His father is Shelby Steele, error. The film has collected more than 400 five-star the famous Black conservative and author of “The ratings in its first two weeks of streaming. Content of our Character,” a book that got him Eli Steele is 46 and lives in Los Angeles with his two cancelled back in the 1990s. children. He has cochlear implants and reads lips, and So when Eli Steele, who is deaf in addition to being we talked over Zoom. The interview has been edited for Black and Jewish, wanted to become a filmmaker, he clarity and length. was joining a long line of people who refused to accept You have what might be called in some circles an what society told them about themselves. intersectional identity. How would you respond to Steele’s third film, “What Killed Michael Brown,” stars that? his father, who is now a fellow at Stanford University’s I think it’s a false way to give me power. Hoover Institution. In it, Steele and Steele go to Ferguson, Missouri, again and again, trying to figure out How do you get from oppression to power? how an 18-year-old Black man ended up fatally shot by a white police officer, and why despite the fact that the Why are you putting labels on people? What purpose is Department of Justice concluded that Brown was shot that serving? When you feel the need to label in self-defense, a narrative prevails in which he was somebody, you’re doing it for a reason. I was just killed out of racism while his hands were in the air. reading today that they’re taking Cubans in Florida and moving them over to the white category. Who has the In trying to answer this question, father and son paint a power to do that? damning portrait of American liberalism, in which “white guilt became Black power.” “Of course there was Or when they take Jews — like my mother, who was the a catch,” Shelby Steele says in the film. “To milk white daughter of Holocaust survivors — and move her into guilt, we had to always be the victims of white racism.” the white category, when she would scream and say, “No! Do you understand what my life was like?” When It’s a scathing critique of liberalism that undermines the her parents who survived the Holocaust came to New central claims of Critical Race Theory, an academic York, there was antisemitism everywhere. Now all of a worldview that sees social and cultural dynamics in sudden, you’re white. terms of power and race, and casts America as a perpetual white supremacy. “America’s original sin is That tells you there’s a shift in the culture. And that not slavery,” Shelby Steele says in the film. “It is simply shift had to do with power. If there was no power the use of race as a means to power.” behind it, we wouldn’t do it.

Amazon, which hosts Steele’s other films, initially de- The most cynical way of looking at it is they just brand platformed this one. In an Oct. 14 email, a you by the number of grievances you have. It’s a representative informed Steele that “What Killed tragedy, in a way. Growing up, Black meant power — in Michael Brown” did not meet the company’s “content a good way. We were oppressed people but we were

Q & A | Black, deaf, and Jewish filmmaker Eli Steele is challenging how we view race 8 GET THE LATEST AT FORWARD.COM

overcoming. It was all about triumph! My uncles — not They wanted me to replace those children. They related, but my Black uncles — they were doctors, they wanted a stand in. One school offered a $25,000 Martin were filmmakers… even the Holocaust survivors I grew Luther King scholarship. Back in 1992, that was a lot of up with had that aspiration. Now it’s different, it’s more money. I turned that down because it was not the right about grievances, about victimization. thing to do.

So who has the power to make that shift? Wow. I would not have had the morals or the guts to turn something like that down. It’s the people behind “identity politics.” We forget we’re only 60 years away from the civil rights It’s difficult! I was tempted! You make jokes about it, movement. My father had me when he was 28 years “Take that money!” But once you do that, there’s a old. He did not eat in a restaurant until he was 20. price you pay in a way. Psychologically. But also you become beholden to the party line. Once you make a I remember my parents would drive to a fancy hotel in bargain, you become beholden to that power. You’re no the Bay Area, where I grew up, and I never understood longer able to speak freely. why. They would go to a hotel where Blacks and Jews had not been allowed to eat. So they were going to go Can you explain what you mean by power? where they couldn’t go, take advantage of that. There’s a difference between racism and oppression. After the civil rights movement, America said, “Ok, we Oppression is government sanction. Racism on an were wrong.” But what do you do? How do you fix it? everyday level happens all the time. I’ve experienced How do you build back a society after segregation? racism. My father got called a n****r just walking down Monterey two years ago. Racism will never go away. We used race. But oppression is very different. My grandparents and my parents marched to get rid of When there’s oppression, you cannot fight it. You have the race box under segregation. And in the early 70s, no recourse against it. When they told my father, they brought back the race box, in order to prove “Maybe you should be a janitor,” they were being discrimination. It was very reasonable, but that good realistic. He was a bright guy — maybe he should be a intention got corrupted, and so now we use these race janitor! He never thought in 10 years the world would boxes to achieve what we believe to be equity, where flip and all those doors would open. we have the same number of people as the number of races. But this is where Critical Race Theory gets into trouble. Whether they understand it or not, they are picking up When do you first remember noticing the shift from the very same tools that white supremacists use. Can power to grievance, and why do you think it you imagine Jews taking on the thought process of happened? Nazis? I think when I was applying to college — affirmative These people for some reason believe that using race is action. I grew up in a middle-class neighborhood, a way to make things more equitable. So they use surrounded by basically white trash. Rednecks. And these tools where they say, “We are not diverse now you want to give me affirmative action. Why? Not enough, so therefore we are racist, so we need to get even for my deafness. My deafness didn’t even matter. more Black people.” I have been in meetings and I said, It was a huge obstacle that I had overcome, and it was “Well, I’m actually Black,” and they’re all, “Oh my God, completely irrelevant. They wanted me to check that we got one!” race box. They have no idea what they’re doing. They’re just so It exposed the corruption in a way: I was a replacement. happy they can claim one. They didn’t want to do the hard work of going into the poor neighborhoods and developing those children. I want to make very clear that the oppression we have

Q & A | Black, deaf, and Jewish filmmaker Eli Steele is challenging how we view race 9 GET THE LATEST AT FORWARD.COM

today, while it’s getting worse, is not the level of socioeconomic measure. It might be racism. In some oppression under segregation. But racially engineering cases yes, maybe. But Critical Race Theory makes things — that’s a tremendous amount of power. everything about race. That’s where the power-grab comes in. In today’s society, it’s in the academic world, the corporate world. But you have to remember that you I’ve faced a lot of discrimination. It’s not a perfect are reducing people to bodies. You’re reducing people world. You will run up against idiots. You have to focus to their names. You’re reducing people to their skin on your own power. I tell my daughter and my son, you color. Why are we doing this to society? have to develop yourself so you have all that power inside of yourself, so when someone comes and slams And if you’re not part of it, you’re a racist. You’re not on that door in your face, you have the resilience to move the right side of morality. So I’m not on the right side of forward. morality. In my lifetime I’ve gone from being called a n****r as a kid to being called a white supremacist. Just In eighth grade, I asked 15 girls to the eighth-grade three weeks ago, I was called a pro-racist. I don’t even dance. Every one of them said no. But I still went to know what that means, a pro-racist. that dance — and I danced with a lot of them! I didn’t give up! I didn’t cry. I went to that dance. There’s a line in the beginning of “What Killed Michael Brown” where your father says, “America’s original I know probably they didn’t want to be with the deaf sin is not slavery. It’s the use of race for power.” guy. It was the late 80s, there was a whole stigma. Everybody wanted to be blond with blue eyes. They Absolutely. Why are we keeping the one-drop rule alive wanted to be surfers. But the point was, you’re not to this day? That’s why I don’t check the race box on going to deny me my eighth-grade dance. So you the census. should find your own way. Make your own position.

I never check the “white” box. I check “Other” and Do you feel that Critical Race Theory represents write in Jewish. Although I do think that I have white where the Black community is at in America? privilege. The police are not going to pull me over, for example, or harass me. How do you respond to No. The whole idea of white privilege is foreign. You something like that? Or for example red-lining? never put your fate into the hands of white people. You never waited for white people to do something for you. Red-lining, block-busting, all of that created a lot of You do it. That’s the lesson we lost. The idea that we problems. But the big missing piece is liberalism. What have to wait for white people to change? “Good luck we show in the film is how when you take Black people, with that.” take away their equity and put them into housing I’m deaf. Since I’ve been doing the P.R. for this film, I projects — nobody can survive that. had four interviews canceled because they found out So you’re not erasing the impact of red-lining and all that I’m deaf, and they didn’t want to take a chance on these other things. You’re saying there’s a that. People might go, “Oh my God, that’s psychological component that’s been provided that discrimination, that’s all of that.” underscores all of this? Well, it is, but I see it as an opportunity to say, “Hey, Absolutely. When you factor in the government taking you shouldn’t have done that. I understand, but you away your agency, you put them into a kind of a trap. should have given me that chance.” And then hopefully that makes them better. What’s interesting about it is that we’re further away from segregation and slavery than ever before. Racism That’s my role in life. I know that I’m the first person like on almost every metric is lower. However, Blacks and a me that a lot of people meet. And I can take a very lot of minorities are on the bottom of almost every negative view. I can say, that’s a microaggression,

Q & A | Black, deaf, and Jewish filmmaker Eli Steele is challenging how we view race 10 GET THE LATEST AT FORWARD.COM

that’s discrimination. Or I can just take the more It’s very scary talking to you because the stakes of positive view, which gives me more power, which is, being convinced by these arguments are incredibly this is who I am. What you did was wrong. But next high. It essentially means you can no longer be in the time, here are some possible solutions to overcome the mainstream of American intellectual life. language barrier or the communication barrier. That’s I come from a family where we don’t follow. But don’t going to be my life. you want a complete picture of the whole situation? We were multiracial children in a mostly white Don’t you want to understand that the history is more neighborhood. Whether we realized it or not, we were complex? Or do you just want to cherry pick what fits integrating that neighborhood. We were teaching the your narrative? other white children. We get emails to this day: “I’m so You know, when that thing happened with Amazon, I glad I knew you, because I had racist parents. And I was just shocked. The film quotes actual witnesses — would talk to you.” That’s the progress I believe in. It’s it’s not me! And I’m canceled. There’s a profound lack of more humane. introspection on the part of people who believe in white Another thing that seems to come up in today’s race supremacy. discourse is a kind of weirdness when it comes to How did you decide to make a film about Michael Jews. Have you experienced that? Brown? I hate to use this word, but it’s almost sociopathic. It was 2017, and I had just finished “How Jack Became We’re in an age where you look past someone’s Black” and was looking for a new subject. And Michael humanity to their literal color, where you’re ignoring the Brown was definitely the one. humanity — that’s why I call it sociopathic. Why are you doing that? Why are you ignoring that? Why do we I always wanted to do something with my father. I was have the need to put Jews into the white box? with him in 2014 and we started hearing the narrative coming out. And it was like, “My God, how horrible, he If the race box was making our society better, I would just shot him, and they left him for four and a half be all for it. But it’s just not. Race is the most absurd hours.” And all of a sudden, a few weeks later we thing. When you take race as your power, you’re going started hearing, “On no, no, the shots were in the to have to deal with the most ridiculous things. front.” Think about white supremacists. My Black elders as a So what was really interesting for us was the response kid would talk about how they felt sorry for white of America. Why did America need to believe in this people. And I’d be like, “Why would you feel sorry for other version? Why was everything else completely white people? Under segregation, they had all the swept aside? power. They had all the wealth. Why would you feel sorry for them?” The civil rights movement was about protesting racism. But in Ferguson, whether they knew it or not, they were It took me a long time to understand that what they keeping racism alive. They kept saying it was racism. were saying was, these white people have allowed But the protesters already had the evidence that themselves to believe in their whiteness. They’ve showed that wasn’t the case. They already had it. But allowed themselves to believe in the power that comes they chose not to listen to it. from race. That makes them smaller people. - Black people before the Black Power movement did not think of themselves as Black. They saw themselves as Batya Ungar-Sargon is the opinion editor of the their humanity. So they were more humane than their Forward. Her email is [email protected]. Follow her oppressors. That’s a lesson I’ve always taken. on Twitter @bungarsargon.

When you reduce Jews to white people, you’re putting The views and opinions expressed in this article are them in the same box as Germans. Why do you have a the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those system that does that? Why are you walking around of the Forward. with all the power?

Q & A | Black, deaf, and Jewish filmmaker Eli Steele is challenging how we view race 11 GET THE LATEST AT FORWARD.COM

Opinion Frustrating but indispensable, Saeb Erekat was like the peace process: heroic. By Muhammad Shehada

On Tuesday we learned of the passing of Saeb Erekat, a advocacy of negotiations and peace at times when the chief Palestinian negotiator, who succumbed to political process seemed to be a waste of time. “Life is complications due to Covid in a Jerusalem hospital. For negotiations,” he used to casually say, which became 30 years, since the Madrid Peace Conference of 1991, the title of his most notable book. Erekat was a cornerstone of the peace process, a main Indeed, Saeb embodied the peace process itself: pillar of any efforts to end the conflict. To most imperfect, frustrating at times, yet still essential and Palestinians, his name is synonymous with the two- indispensable, and overall something that must be state solution, negotiations, and peace, and his death thought of fondly. represents a calamity not just for the Palestinians, to whom he had dedicated his life, but to all advocates of His passing today symbolizes the slow but sure demise a just and lasting peace between Israelis and of the Palestinian peace camp. Under Trump’s Palestinians. presidency, the number of Palestinians who believe Erekat’s belief in the certainty of a future peace was that the two-state solution remains a possibility has unshakable. He made it his life’s goal and legacy, and been sharply declining, and Palestinians who believe believed it was his destiny, the thing he was “born to this solution can be reached through diplomatic talks do,” as former Israeli Chief Negotiator Tzipi Livni noted are now seen as delusional. That’s why it’s hard to think today. of anyone who can fill Saeb’s role. It’s not just because he was uncommonly adamant in heart and mind that negotiating for peace was the only way forward. It’s also because the Palestinian peace camp has been marginalized, targeted and disincentivized during Trump’s and Netanyahu’s terms. The role as Chief Negotiator is now more of a bane than boon.

Saeb and the main Palestinian protagonists of the peace process have been often attacked by people from both sides. They are now increasingly attacked by Saeb, whose name means “correct” and “poignant” in their own people because they have shown little or no Arabic, was uncompromising, adamant and righteous. tangible results stemming from their gamble on the He was, of course, not perfect. He could be peace process or their devotion to Israel’s security cantankerous, speechifying and easily provoked by through the locally frowned-upon “security Twitter trolls of late, sometimes too keen to give an collaboration” apparatus. answer to every troll. But it was also part of his charm; he was down to earth, loved and cherished by those Of course they are also smeared by right-wing pro- who knew him, and warmly remembered, even by his Israelis as “terror-supporters” and “antisemites.” In opponents. Saeb’s last days, AIPAC’s former executive director, Neal Sher, petitioned the Trump administration to bar Opponents he had many, on both sides of the conflict. Saeb from entering the U.S., labeling him a terrorist He infuriated many Palestinians with his dedicated inciter. Even after his death, right-wing trolls hastened

Frustrating but indispensable, Saeb Erekat was like the peace process: heroic. 12 GET THE LATEST AT FORWARD.COM to taint his memory and demonize him. News No wonder no one wants to follow in his footsteps, Stabbing of Jewelry only to be attacked from both sides. But that’s why it’s important to honor Saeb’s legacy as a peace hero. District businessman If Yitzhak Rabin, a former military general, could make the cut, so should Saeb. shakes L.A.’s Iranian

Saeb, 65, should be remembered as a faithful Jewish community husband and a caring father of four to Salam, Dalal, By Karmel Melamed Ali and Mohammad. He was a loving grandfather, a decent Palestinian and a fervent believer in peace Southern California’s Iranian Jewish community has who never pointed a gun at anyone or wished harm been in mourning following the violent stabbing death unto others. of an Iranian Jewish businessman on Nov. 3 at his jewelry business in downtown Los Angeles. Celebrating Saeb’s memory and making him an icon of Israeli-Palestinian coexistence would give According to a brief report from the Los Angeles Palestinians hope that those of us who chhose to County Coroner’s office, 62-year-old Eshagh advocate for peace would be warmly embraced and Natanzadeh of Beverly Hills died after receiving genuinely appreciated by the international community multiple sharp force injuries to his chest. — and the Jewish community. Local Iranian Jewish activists said their community It’s more paramount that when Joe Biden’s members are still in disbelief after first hearing about administration assumes office, they ensure that Natanzadeh’s murder. Saeb’s investment of 30 years of his life to see peace “The entire community is just in shock and the family unfold between Israelis and Palestinians does not are obviously very upset,” said Dara Abaei, who heads disappear, and that his toil was not in vain. It should the L.A.-based, Jewish Unity Network, an Iranian be among the administration’s key priorities to see a Jewish non-profit group. “I have received multiple substantial advancement towards Israeli-Palestinian phone calls from different people in the community peace and a meaningful improvement to the lives of who are worried and had been telling their family Palestinians. members who work in downtown to come home after - hearing of this killing.”

Muhammad Shehada is a contributing columnist for A press release from the Los Angeles Police the Forward from Gaza. His work has also appeared in Department did not disclose Natanzadeh’s name, but Haaretz and Vice. Find him on Twitter indicated that Natanzadeh was pronounced dead @muhammadshehad2. when police and paramedics arrived at his store located in downtown L.A.’s Jewelry district. Police said The views and opinions expressed in this article are no suspects have been arrested in connection with the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the murder and declined to comment on the case. those of the Forward. They have deemed it a homicide as an investigation continues.

Sharyar Soleymani, a Iranian Jewish jewelry store owner who has worked in downtown L.A.’s Jewelry District for 35 years, said he had known Natanzadeh and his brother, Habib for more than 15 years and

Stabbing of Jewelry District businessman shakes L.A.’s Iranian Jewish community 13 GET THE LATEST AT FORWARD.COM

The local Iranian Jewish community has faced similar The Schmooze tragedy in the past. Several Iranian Jewish jewelers recalled the killing of Masoud Babaei, an Iranian In “Real Housewives Jewish jewelry store owner in his 60’s was who shot to death by suspects during an attempted robbery at of Salt Lake City,” his downtown L.A. store nearly two decades ago. Jewish girls thrive in Moreover, Natanzadeh’s murder is yet another tragedy for his family. In 2011, Natanzadeh’s 15-year- the Mormon world old daughter Elena collapsed at Beverly Hills High school and subsequently died of an undisclosed By Irene Katz Connelly medical ailment, Abaei said. “The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City” chronicles A day following Natanzadeh’s murder, his son, Omid the lives of a small subset of plastic-surgery prone posted a photo of his late father and sister with a women in the capital of the Mormon world. It may not message to friends and family on his Facebook page. seem like a very Jewish show, but there’s only one word to describe our feelings about it: dayenu. “My dad’s physical being was taken from us and he is now with my younger sister, Elena, “ wrote Omid. “My It would have been enough to watch one housewife, family and I truly appreciate all of your calls and Mary, start what looks as if it will be a season-defining messages with kind words. I’ve been hearing nothing fight by telling another cast member she “smells like but ‘your dad was the nicest man I knew, your dad hospital.” But on top of that, we also get to enjoy the was such a kind soul, your dad was so giving, your extremely weird fact that she’s married to her former dad was like my own brother’ — and while all of these step-grandfather. It would have been enough to see are so heartwarming to hear, nothing will ever be the Jen, in a quasi-religious stab at sex education, warn same.” her teenage son that he can get AIDS from kissing a girl. But we also get to accompany her when she gets Kamran Shakibkhou, an L.A. area friend of the Botox injected in her armpits to prevent sweating. Natanzadeh family, set up a GoFundMe page online (Spoiler: it doesn’t work.) It would have been enough for the family which has raised nearly $60,000 in the to hear about Whitney being excommunicated from past three days. the Mormon church. (Her crime: a torrid affair with a married boss 18 years her senior). But this revelation L.A. area Iranian Jewish activists said they hope local is especially delicious given the fact that she’s a direct police will thoroughly investigate the murder of descendant of Shadrach Roundy, a neck beard- Natanzadeh and bring closure for the community. sporting Mormon patriarch who (we’re just guessing) “The community demands from the police to diligently would have frowned mightily on such conduct. search for the murderer and bring him to justice,” said And it would have been enough to watch this drama George Haroonian, an Iranian Jewish activist based in (or lack thereof) play out among women of any creed. Los Angeles. But in the first “Real Housewives” offshoot to tackle - religion head-on, they tossed us two Jews.

Karmel Melamed is an award-winning Iranian Jewish In the world conjured by this newest addition to the journalist, activist and attorney based in Southern reality TV empire, which premieres Nov. 11, physical California. perfection is a spiritual mandate. Scandals arise due to the consumption of alcohol or decades-old violations of the honor code at Brigham Young University. Much of the show’s tension arises from the

In “Real Housewives of Salt Lake City,” Jewish girls thrive in the Mormon world 14 GET THE LATEST AT FORWARD.COM

housewives’ attempts to provide what the show needs every morning. Given that most of us watch “Real — disparaging commentary, spicy marital conflict, Housewives” with the express purpose of judging other cocktails dashed against designer dresses — without women, this may be the bravest thing any cast member giving anyone else the chance to accuse them of does. unbecoming conduct. Capitalizing on our prurient interest in insular, minority But not everyone playing this game is actually a Latter- religions, “The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City” bills Day Saint. One housewife is Pentecostal, while another itself as an exploration of Mormon foibles. In particular, is converting to Islam after marrying a Black man and it characterizes Mormon women as uniquely invested in learning of the church’s racist history. Aside from the the superficial perfection of their bodies. Heather, who disgraced Whitney, another Mormon, Heather, is in owns a med-spa, remarks that opening her business dubious standing because of her divorce. was like “putting your hand in a river of money, because attaining perfection is a Mormon pastime.” Then there are the Jews. She’s not the first person to make an argument like First, there’s Meredith Marks. Basically, if you asked that: Journalists have attributed the high proportion of Marjorie Taylor Greene to describe the “globalists” aspirational Mormon lifestyle bloggers to a cultural she’s constantly tweeting about, you’d end up with this emphasis on physical beauty. woman. A recent transplant to Salt Lake City from But it’s also difficult to take the show at its word. In “Chicawgo,” her major-American-city origins are part, that’s because treating the cherry-picked evidenced by her lip fillers, which are slightly subtler vignettes captured by “Real Housewives” producers as than everyone else’s. Not quite a housewife, she a sociological investigation is akin to presenting spends her time purchasing high-heeled hiking boots, footage of uber-wealthy bar mitzvah boys drooling hawking $10,000 bangles to a “large celebrity over Nicki Minaj as a nuanced portrait of American following” and attending parties in the company of her Jewry. More important, the one thing that unites the adult son, who is one of multiple offspring on the show housewives across all creeds is their shared pursuit of named Brooks. We predict confidently that the requisite physical perfection — defined, extremely narrowly, as relationship drama will come from her atrocious the ability to credibly shave 10 years off their age. The husband, Seth: Who wouldn’t want to have a televised one thing everyone here can agree upon is the spat with a nebbishy man who marches around in importance of surgically altering the skin over one’s saggy khakis, yet confidently dispenses such aphorisms kneecaps. as “You can never have too much wealth or too much sex?” Meredith and Lisa may continue in the “Real Housewives’” storied tradition of confirming clichés Then there’s Lisa Barlow, who was born Jewish but about Jewish women. But, at least by implicating converted to Mormonism with her family as a child. themselves, they’re helping to exonerate their Mormon Now, she calls herself “Mormon 2.0,” a descriptor sisters from the stereotypes the show imposes. seemingly invented to square her religious observance with the fact that she owns three tequila companies. - She spends most of her time disparaging other Irene Katz Connelly is an editorial fellow at the Forward. housewives as “good-time girls” (apparently, not a You can contact her at [email protected]. Follow compliment in Salt Lake City). Had she been raised her on Twitter at @katz_conn. Jewish, Lisa would have undoubtedly gotten drunk at her bat mitzvah and left a trail of socially-traumatized Hebrew school classmates in her wake. Despite that, we have to respect her unblushing admission that she feeds her kids Taco Bell drive-thru fare for breakfast

In “Real Housewives of Salt Lake City,” Jewish girls thrive in the Mormon world 15