Kudos to Bret Stephens (really!). Nadler & Dems. Jews & Hollywood. Michelle Williams. Sarah Silverman. David Grossman at demo in Tel Aviv. Feb. 3 demo in DC. RIP Victor Navasky.
Newsletter # 132 Fri, Jan 27, 2023
This turns out to be a very Jewy issue of the Newsletter (with not many women in sight). If Jewish issues, worries, sense and sensibilities aren’t your thing, you may want to bail out now.
FILM
*The Jewish Telegraph Agency’s annual list of all the Jews nominated for this year’s Academy Awards is a stunner. Standard fare in Jewish-American media, such compendia (Wow, we’re 0.2% of the global population but 22% of Nobel Laureates!!), tend to stir pride in many of us but toss red meat to rabid antisemites who relish turning Jewish achievements into toxic stereotypes. (“The Jews control Hollywood.”) It’s an old story. Stay proud.
* Speaking of Oscar nominees, Stephen Spielberg has been taking heat for casting a nonJew, Michelle Williams, as the Jewish mother in his autobiographical coming-of-age movie, “The Fabelmans.”This phenomenon, too, is an old story. Sarah Silverman did a smart, angry, hilarious riff on gentile stars getting plum Jewish roles. Remember who played Golda Meir, Joan Rivers, Mrs. Maisal and RBG. For more on the subject, see “Is It Funny for the Jews,” and the quirky, clever, JewOrNotJew.
THE HOLOCAUST
*Today is Holocaust Remembrance Day. This week, Abigail Pogrebin’s stimulating roundtable discussion series, The Minyan, brings us into a candid conversation among American Jews who are survivors. Members of a fast vanishing coterie, their harrowing stories of suffering and loss are mercifully mitigated by their tough-minded commitment to educating young people about the horrors and lessons of the Shoah, and challenging some Jews’ delusional belief that it can’t happen here.
*An Arab photographer will exhibit his portraits of Israeli Holocaust survivors. “A fateful conversation with a Jewish friend set Rafat Zrieq (above) on an unlikely path, with his powerful images of survivors due to be shown in Tel Aviv later this year.”
ISRAEL-PALESTINE
*This week, Jerry Nadler, the longest serving Jew in Congress, joined a growing list of “pro-Israel Democrats” who are actively protesting antidemocratic moves by P.M. Benjamin Netanyahu and his governing coalition.
*Bret Stephens’ views rarely match my own yet his column on Netanayu and Zelensky speaks the truth as I see it : “… if Israel is to persevere, it also must maintain the moral respect of its honest friends. Too bad for it that, today, the Jewish people’s greatest leader resides in Kyiv rather than Jerusalem.“
*This unprecedented series of short animated videos drawn from interviews with ordinary Gazans tells heart wrenching stories about life under Hamas. Click “Whispered in Gaza” to see all 8 episodes. Though Hamas has totally failed its people, Israel is not off the hook. “Israel maintains direct external control over Gaza and indirect control over life within Gaza: it controls Gaza's air and maritime space, as well as six of Gaza's seven land crossings. It reserves the right to enter Gaza at will with its military and maintains a no-go buffer zone within the Gaza territory. Gaza is dependent on Israel for water, electricity, telecommunications, and other utilities.[26”
*Last Saturday night 150,000 people gathered in Tel Aviv (above) to protest the anti-democratic agenda of Israel’s new right wing government and heard powerful words from David Grossman, among the country’s most venerated writers.
*Americans for Peace Now and its partners in the Progressive Israel Network invite those of you in the D.C area to stand in solidarity with Israeli protestors against Netanyahu’s government of “felons, fascists and fundamentalists” Fri, Feb. 3 @ 2:00 pm @the Israeli Embassy, 3514 International Dr NW.
* Responding to the overhaul of the Israeli judiciary, Yuval Diskin, former chief of the Shin Bet (Israel’s equivalent of the FBI), has called for national strikes by secular Israelis, the folks who keep the county's economy thriving. Good idea.
IN MEMORIUM
*Victor Navasky, a pioneering liberal journalist and a personal friend of more than 60 years (above with his wife, Annie, at their country house in Hillsdale, NY), died at 90 on January 23rd. I will always remember Victor as a great journalist and stalwart leftie but above all, as a people-collector par excellence. He mentored thousands of progressive thinkers and writers, saved The Nation magazine from extinction, and wrote the definitive book on HUAC and the blacklist, Naming Names. Now The Guardian reveals his unsung role in countering homophobia and advancing LGBTQ rights way back in 1971. Victor always reminded me of the person Marge Piercy describes in her poem “To Be of Use.” It’s hard to lose a man of use, a captivating story-teller, a world-class listener and a fiercely loyal friend.
HUMOR — Universal laws that never made the law books.
Light travels faster than sound. That’s why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.
A fine is a tax for doing wrong. A tax is a fine for doing well.
A day without sunshine is like, well, night.
Change is inevitable, except from a vending machine.
Anytime you have a 50-50 chance of getting something right, there's a 90% probability you'll get it wrong.
Give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer. (Please don’t tell me this is sexist. Just grin and bear it.)
SHABBAT SHALOM AND HAPPY WEEKEND. — LETTY