Scott Stringer, Maya Wiley, Kamela Harris, Tovah Feldshuh, Louise Erdrich, Ibram X. Kendi & more. But first, Israel-Palestine
LETTY COTTIN POGREBIN NEWSLETTER #108 May 15, 2021
ISRAEL-PALESTINE, FIRST & FOREMOST
I'll get to the bold-faced names in a minute but right now I'm so horrified by the escalating violence and destruction on the ground that it's hard to write about anything else. All the news from the region is terrible, tragic, and scary.
An oped in Haaretz warns, Netanyahu Is Leading Israel Into Civil War Between Jews & Palestinians. Slate asks Is this the third intifada? Shlomo Ben-Ami, a former Israeli foreign minister, now VP of the Toledo International Center for Peace, proclaims "The End of Israel's Illusion," meaning the illusion that Israel has defeated Palestinian nationalism and that coexistence is possible in mixed Jewish/Arab cities like Acre, Ramla, Jaffa, and Lod, which it probably isn't as long as Israel discriminates against its Palestinian citizens inside the Green Line and continues its occupation of the West Bank. Meanwhile in the U.S. and Israel, parochial interests are spinning the story and politicians are exploiting the situation for their own gain (i.e. Netanyahu has been campaigning on it in a last ditch effort to stay in power.)
Should you wish to follow events more closely, these webinars, articles, and blogs: will help you better understand what's going on:
* 5000 people watched "Jerusalem Crisis: What's happening, what's being done, what's needed?" an illuminating webinar co-sponsored by dozens of center-left Jewish organizations. Over the course of an hour, you'll hear from experts Noa Landau, Haaretz Diplomatic Correspondent; Huda Abuarquob, regional director of Alliance for Middle East Peace, Danny Seidman, preeminent Israeli civil rights lawyer and advocate for land justice, Hagit Ofran, (below) head of Peace Now's "Settlement Watch," internationally-recognized as Israel's foremost authority on conditions in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
The panelists offer a substantive overview of the underlying tensions fueling the present escalation; provocations at Al Aqsa mosque; the impending evictions of Palestinians in Sheikh Jarrah; intra-communal violence in Lod and other mixed Jewish/Palestinian towns; Hamas' rockets into Israel and IDF bombing of Gaza; the impact of these developments on post-election coalition-building efforts in Israel, and the belated response of the US State Dept. for instance, its tepid press statement Violence in Jerusalem released on May 7th when there was still time for productive American diplomatic intervention.
* Steven A. Cook (above), senior fellow for Middle East and Africa Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) explains How evictions in Jerusalem led to Israeli-Palestinian violence.
* Nadia Saah (above left), a Palestinian-American and Advisory Board member of Jewish Currents offers a remarkably comprehensive reading list not just about the current crisis but about her people's historical rights and grievances, their felt experience of Israeli oppression, dehumanization and erasure, and their call for international support of their long struggle for freedom and return. [Full disclosure: Nadia is a close personal friend and we have been in deep discussion for 13yrs, along with a few other Palestinian and Jewish women. Nadia wrote a beautiful oped published in 2010 in The Forward, describing her family background and her feelings about our discussion group (above, in photo taken that year.] Nadia writes; "Much has happened since then to clarify power dynamics and a sense of responsibility to express the reality of Zionism's impact on Palestinians and work for a sustainable future rooted in justice."
* In his searing Times opinion piece, Prof. Refaat Alareer, (above) a Palestinian father & editor of “Gaza Writes Back” recounts what he, his wife Nusayba, and their six children experienced this past week in their town in the Gaza Strip. I flushed with rage and sorrow when I read the tally of his losses: "In 2014, during the last war, Israel killed my brother Hamada; it destroyed my apartment when it brought down the family home that housed 40 people. It killed my wife’s grandfather, her brother, her sister and her sister’s three kids. We have not overcome that trauma yet. We have not finished rebuilding the homes Israel obliterated then. Nusayba and I are a perfectly average Palestinian couple: Between us we have lost more than 30 relatives."
* "Modern Orthodox Rabbi Donniel Hartman (above), president of Jerusalem's Shalom Hartman Institute, and clearly a Jew troubled by his conscience, shares his anguish in a blog entitled, "I am angry and I cannot put my anger aside until things are quiet."
* Some say they were celebrating Yom Yerushalayim, Jerusalem Day, but mages such as this one of settlers dancing in the midst of death and destruction, turned my stomach, and reminded me of how superior and disdainful many Jews were when Arabs danced on the rooftops to celebrate Saddam Hussein's Scuds landing near Tel Aviv in 1991. Why is it okay for us to do what we condemn when others do it?
* Lara Friedman (above) president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace, questions Palestinian political analyst & conflict resolution expert, Carol Daniel Kasbari, about The Nakba & the Current Crisis.
WOMEN IN PUBLIC LIFE
* Until last week, I hadn't endorsed anyone in the NYC mayoral race because I was equally impressed by Scott Stringer -- the NYC Comptroller, a seasoned public official who understands how our city works and would be ready on day one to govern it -- and Maya Wiley, a whip smart lawyer, professor, civil rights activist, and former chair of the Civilian Complaint Review Board who offers innovative ideas and a fresh face. And who, not incidentally, would be the first woman in history to hold the top job. But I always start by believing women's abuse claims so when Jean Kim (above, center) lodged her sex harassment allegations against Stringer, and Wiley called and asked for my support, I agreed to endorse her. Wiley is a superb candidate but, in fairness, before you make a decision about Stringer vs. Wiley, you should probably read Ruth Messinger's oped in The Daily News written with Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum, and Katha Pollitt's piece in The Nation, both of which argue against a rush to judgement on the woman's claims and the man's guilt.
* In 1960, 6-year-old Ruby Bridges had to be escorted to her all-white public school by federal marshals, an event memorably depicted in Norman Rockwell's painting, "The Problem We All Live With"(above). In 2021, Vice President Kamela Harris was escorted by aides to the joint session of Congress for President Biden's first State of the Union address at which Harris presided along with Speaker Nancy Pelosi. (below) This time the women "behind the man" were two powerful elected officials, one of them a woman of color. The optics (below) tell a story that's been 51 years in the making.
* The conversation series, "100 Years/100 Women" presented by the NY Armory & the Met, can be seen now thru August 27. Full listing here. About her photo above, entitled "Chillin' with Lady Liberty," the artist says embodies “taking the stereotypical representations of women and turning them upside down, for their empowerment.”.
* Dianne Lob (above) survived fierce attacks from a far right, proTrump Jewish group whose president objected to the work Lob did on behalf of nonJewish refugees when she was Chair of HIAS (Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society). He tried to prevent her from becoming Chair of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, but she persisted, succeeded & now heads the Conference, a coalition of more than 50 Jewish groups from across the ideological spectrum. Mazal tov, Ms. Lob, but can you please make the work of the Conference more transparent & democratic?
* A feminist first: Shirat Hatamar, an Orthodox synagogue in the West Bank settlement of Efrat has appointed a woman, Rabbanit Shira Marili Mirvis (above), to be the community’s sole spiritual leader, the first time that a female has held such a position in an Israeli Orthodox community. [To be clear: Efrat is not inside Israel proper but the settlement is entirely composed of Orthodox Israelis.] Rabbanit Mirvis was nominated with the support of 83 percent of the synagogue’s voting members.
THE ARTS
* On Being Black, Jewish and an artist. Jewish cultural expression is far more diverse than many realize. Watch Kendell Pinkney, theater artist and rabbi-to-be now studying at JTS, in conversation a few months ago with Ella Cooper, Rebecca S’manga Frank, Sara Yacobi-Harris and Anthony Russell. Presented by Fentster, a "happening" gallery in Toronto, Canada.
* If you're nowhere near the Western Wall in Jerusalem, you might consider depositing your tiny folded wish in"The Receptacle Project," an aggregation of positive messages being collected in beautifully decorated Quaker Oats canisters (above) by visual artist Harriet Cherry Cheney with the intention "that the energy generated by so many positive thoughts will help heal the world." Send yours to Cheney at PO Box 117, Ardsley, NY, 10502. Or email hscheney@optonline.net
* Tovah Feldshuh's just-published memoir, Lilyville: Mother, Daughter and Other Roles I've Played has already garnered raves. "...always intense, often hilarious, and sometimes fraught... "(Booklist) And, "A warm, heartfelt memoir for Broadway and Hollywood enthusiasts." (Kirkus Reviews) "From Golda to Ginsburg, Yentl to Mama Rose, Tallulah to the Queen of Mean, Tovah Feldshuh has always played powerful women who aren't afraid to sit at the table with the big boys and rule their world. But offstage, Tovah struggled to fulfill the one role she never auditioned for: Lily Feldshuh's only daughter." (Indiebound summary)
2 GREAT GALAS, BOTH FREE
* If you love books and writers, you'll relish every minute of the Authors Guild Foundation Gala, hosted by the inimitable Samantha Bee (left) this Tues, May 18, at 7 PM.. Prepare to sample a smorgasbord of literary titans, Louise Erdrich in conversation with Rumaan Alam, honorees Ibram X. Kendi and Chris Jackson of One World., and Marie Arana, as well as 17 authors each describing the book that most influenced them or changed the world. Register here, and share on social media, All welcome.
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* The virtual gala of the Ms. Foundation for Women, its 33rd Annual "Gloria Awards: A Salute to Women of Vision" will celebrate grass roots activists and build women’s power across the country while underscoring the theme of "Joy Unmuted,' a much needed uplift after 15 months of misery in a time of Covid. Amanda Gorman, (above) the proud young feminist advocate and poet extraordinaire will exponentially compound the evening's joy when she appears to accept the Peggy Charren Award from the MFW's sister organization, the Free To Be Foundation, birthed in 1972 by revenues from the record, book, and TV special, Free to Be, You and Me, created by MFW co-founding mother, Marlo Thomas. Register now and bring friends.
Note to my fellow & sister Jews, including liberal Zionists: Please read the first 29 pages of the Human Rights Watch Report, "A Threshold Crossed: Israeli Authorities & The Crimes of Apartheid & Persecution.". We owe it to our tikkun heritage to inform ourselves. We can't say we didn't know.
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