Ascherman said, “One thing I can promise [to Palestinians], you will not be alone.” His voice broke. “Like when our doors were broken down. You will not be alone. We will do whatever, whatever, whatever we can.”
Common threads are apparent worldwide. The populist right stokes economic fears, nationalism, and anti-immigration sentiment, mixed with “culture war” talking points, to foster an environment of ongoing turmoil. These approaches are combined with attacks on checks and balances, freedom of the press, and scapegoating specific groups.
Three months later, the film accompanies Liat to Yad Vashem, where she leads her class through an exhibit on the Warsaw Ghetto. She focuses on the separation wall that divided the Jews from the Poles and the Germans. It obviously has a specific meaning for her.
With a call to recognize a “shared humanity” as a basis for moving forward, Green repeated the oft-stated phrase: “No one is going anywhere.” Which led back to Lander’s question, “What kind of relationship do we want to be in with each other?”
“Political blacklists are a way of taking away people’s voices. If you are not allowed to participate or speak, no one can hear your ideas. You might lose friends, jobs, and your home. As you go through this exhibition, think about who is being allowed to speak and who is being silenced.”
“We need to go back to the Judaism of our prophets,” Maoz told me. “The opposite of what Israel is now. We can’t wait for the prophets. Where is Shalom?”
Clearly, it will be the people who can hold two narratives simultaneously that will lead the fight for change in the “Holy Land.”
For many readers, the text will be a primer on unfamiliar names and coalitions, and the first “criticisms” of Zionism from the Jewish left in the 1930s and 1940s.
A long-time fixture in New York politics and former President of the human rights organization, American Jewish World Service, Ruth Messinger, told me, “I’m here because Torah states we can’t stand idly by. Starvation is not an appropriate weapon of war.”
“Water for Life” tells of community leaders from three separate Latin American countries who banded together with other like-minded people to make a difference. Grassroots action creates positive change in the world.
"The Jump Rope Line" by Marcia G. Yerman is included in the Seal Press anthology Dancing at the Shame Prom.
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