Israel: the shanda. Obits: Patricia Schroeder.
Shame and loss are my only subjects today. Shame for a nation that should know better. Loss of a woman whose likes won't soon be seen again.
Newsletter #136 March 22, 2023
I’ve set aside my usual multi-subject format for today’s shorter-than-usual posting .
*For the last several months, I’ve been giving talks around the country about my book, Shanda which, as most of you know by now, is A Memoir of Shame and Secrecy. After I speak, it’s not uncommon for audience members to come up to me and quietly confide their shame-based secrets. Recently, a man admitted to having had an extramarital affair, a woman to faking her orgasms. Others confessed to being ashamed that they were adopted, or that their parents were never legally married, or their biological father was their uncle, or the sister they thought was dead, has been secretly tucked away in a mental institution for years. These confessions don’t shock me. What does shake me up is the secret that American Jews are now admitting to themselves—and whispering to folks like me. The government of Israel has made them ashamed of the Jewish State, for some, even ashamed of being Jews.
ISRAEL
*Mark Twain wrote the above words in response to the Russian Czar’s cruelty and injustice. These days, I quote Twain to rebut Israel’s far right demagogues and their acolytes in the U.S., who dare to call peaceful, pro-democracy, anti-racist demonstrators — among them decorated military heroes, former prime ministers and Knesset members, intellectuals, artists, tech inventors, business owners, scientists, students, workers, union members, and idealistic little children — “anarchists,” “traitors,” and “terrorists.” In short, Israel’s government is a shanda — the yiddish word for shame and disgrace.
* Pamela Laufer-Ukeles (above), an Israeli law professor and mother of an IDF combat soldier reflects on what’s happening in her country through the lens of “The Four Mothers.” A religious Jew, she pricks our modern conscience with a fresh take on “The Four Sons” in the Passover Haggadah.
*Meanwhile, millions of American Jews are taking a hard look at Israeli democracy, reassessing their relationship to the Jewish State, and (hopefully) waking up to the fact that it’s not enough to advocate “for democracy” unless it’s “democracy for all.” All — meaning, the 20% of Israeli citizens who are Palestinian Arabs, and the millions who live in the Occupied West Bank under Israel’s sovereignty but not its democratic system of justice, and the Israeli women who fear leaders hell-bent on denying their rights and legalizing their status as men’s inferiors, baby-breeders, & “handmaidens.”
* “In The Spotlight,” Abigail Pogrebin’s series on JBS, features her recent interview with three high ranking Israeli reserve officers who came to the U.S. expressly to speak out against the pending judicial overhaul initiated by P.M. Netanyahu, Minister of Security Ben-Gvir, Finance Minister Smotrich and other extremists in the governing coalition that rules Israel. The three IDF veterans, all long-serving loyals, warn of their country’s imminent existential crisis and plead, in this “moment of emergency,” for diaspora Jews to protest the actions of Israel’s government and to demand action by our governments.
IN MEMORIUM
*Today, March 22, at about 6:30 PM, meaning right about now, the U.S. House of Representatives will observe a minute of silence for their former colleague Patricia Schroeder, who died on March 14th. A tireless public servant, feminist pioneer, and silver-tongued wit, who served 24 years in the House, Patricia Scott Schroeder got what she richly deserved: hundreds of expansive obits and glowing tributes on TV and radio . Among the media who valiantly tried to summarize a life as passionate and productive as Pat’s, the piece in Ms. magazine, “Feminists and Friends Reflect on Pat Schroeder’s Legacy” stands out for its thoroughness.
*I do have one beef with some of the enthusiastic media encomiums about Pat: their negative focus on the one time when she teared up in public. Besides the fact that plenty of prominent men have cried on TV—not just politicians but athletes, actors and others —why take up air time and column inches on this trivial incident when so many stellar legislative achievements of Pat’s, especially those affecting women and families, that could have been amplified further.
*Personal note. As a journalist, I’ve been a close observer of more than 50 years of Pat’s courageous activism and public accomplishments. But as a member of the cadre of 60+year olds who met regularly for more than 20 years to share our thoughts, fears, and lived experience of aging (that small women’s group Ellen Goodman referred to in her Ms. remembrance), I also counted Pat among my most treasured friends. As such, I’d like to add this private memory to the published tributes. When she died, I flashed on the image of Pat in in her backyard in Celebration, Florida, sitting under the canopy of a large tree, wearing a flamingo T-shirt and Mickey Mouse ears, while earnestly explaining to our group exactly what should be done to fix the American health care system. I loved her a lot.
[The next issue of the Newsletter, set to post on Friday, will return to its usual format.]
Israel: the shanda. Obits: Patricia Schroeder.
Dear Letty, You may disagree but you don't need to be ashamed" of the only democracy in the Middle East, a tiny country that sends free, well-trained medical and rescue teams to far corners--Haiti, Turkey, Ukraine-- in times of disaster. I've just returned from a month in Jerusalem where there was more diversity and interracial acceptance than in most American cities. Unlike the zero population growth elsewhere U.S. secular Israelis marry young and have 3-5 kids. It's a loud, lively, young country, that held a free and fair election. I'm aware there will be compromises.
Loving your substack. After I read it several times, I forward to an 83 year old friend. We both think alike-are democrats, write and read poetry, are wishing we were younger so we could protest.