July 27, 2017

Harel Skaat gives voice to LGBT issues in Israel

Leave a Comment / Culture, Israel / Jewish Journal

I’ll never forget the look on the face of my middle-aged car service driver. I had just finished an hourlong, exceedingly pleasant conversation with Israeli pop singer Harel Skaat at a coffee shop next to his upscale apartment in north Tel Aviv a couple of years ago. When Skaat and I stood next to the car’s window and explained where I needed to go, the seemingly bored driver stared straight ahead and nodded a quick “B’seder” (OK).

Then he glanced to his left and saw who was speaking. The driver’s eyes widened, his jaw dropped, and he exclaimed slowly and loudly, “HA – REL SK-A-AT!!!!!,” and I suddenly had a much clearer understanding of just how Uber-popular this entertainer is in his home country.

Skaat has increasingly applied the power of his fame in recent years to social activism — usually on behalf of Israel’s LGBT community — after coming out as gay in 2010. Last week, he took the lead in vehemently expressing outrage over the Israeli government’s decision to keep in place regulations that make it nearly impossible for same-sex couples to adopt children.

After speaking to members of an Israeli gay youth organization, Skaat made a highly controversial recommendation that they protest by avoiding military service, saying, “As an Israeli who loves his country and is proud to be a Jew and speaks about it on every stage around the world, proudly served in the military, whose spouse is a major in the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] and who serves for nearly one month a year until today, I call upon you not to enlist in the military!” He additionally suggested that once they are employed, they refrain from paying taxes.

The singer followed that up by headlining a rally in Tel Aviv attended by a reported 10,000 demonstrators on July 20, decrying the de facto ban on adoptions by same-sex couples.

Thinking back to my interview with the soft-spoken and unfailingly polite Skaat, I realized how out of character this would have been for him just a decade ago. Born in Kfar Saba to a Yemenite-Iraqi family in 1981, he won a national children’s singing competition at the age of 6, and has been performing ever since. In 2004, he soared to prominence as a contestant on “Kochav Nolad” (A Star Is Born), Israel’s equivalent of “American Idol,” which led to a stellar recording career. For years, there was speculation about his sexual orientation, and in 2010, he appeared at a memorial marking the anniversary of a deadly attack on a Tel Aviv gay youth center.

“I felt that by standing on that stage, at that kind of event, my journey of coming out was now starting,” he told me.

Skaat was nudged along in that process by the respected Israeli film producer, TV personality and gay activist Gal Uchovsky, who publicly outed him after the memorial.

“We had a big explosion with television reports that made it look like people got me out of the closet”, Skaat said. “But it wasn’t really like that. I talked to Gal and said I’m not accusing him of anything, because it was my choice.”

When Skaat was called unpatriotic by some on the political right last week for urging young people not to enlist, it was Uchovsky who leaped to his defense, accusing the critics of twisting the singer’s words.

Skaat knows that many celebrities remain closeted for fear of their fans’ potentially negative reaction, but found that for him, “what happened was the opposite. I saw in my audiences a lot of new people. Before, they came to my concerts and liked my music, but there was a cloud above me that made it hard to understand — who are you, what are your inner feelings, what does your personal life look like.

“Once I came out,” he continued, “it was gone. They now knew who I am. The main factor in music and art is to be real, to be honest — especially in my business, because you sing your heart, your feelings, your thoughts.”

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Director takes remembrance of Rabin to the stage

Leave a Comment / Theater / Avishay Artsy

Israeli director Amos Gitai’s 2015 film, “Rabin, the Last Day,” traces the events before and after Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s assassination in 1995, a traumatic moment that continues to haunt the country’s collective memory more than two decades later. That Rabin’s murderer was a young Orthodox Jew only widened the divide between religious and secular Israelis.

Gitai’s latest project, “Yitzhak Rabin: Chronicle of an Assassination,” moves that event onto the stage. Two actresses, Einat Weizman (who also appeared in the film) and Sarah Adler read from the memoirs of Rabin’s widow, Leah, while live music and projections help bring the story to life.

The production, to be presented July 23 at the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre in Hollywood, is a theatrical counterpart to Gitai’s film docudrama. The 2 1/2-hour film used archival footage from news reports, as well as staged re-enactments.

The film focused on the violent anger that ultra-Orthodox Jews stoked against Rabin, the architect of the Oslo Accord, because of his efforts to reach a peace agreement with the Palestinians. The hatred reached a boiling point, with violent protests in the streets of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. A commission was set up to investigate whether government or police officials colluded with the killer, and the film includes a reconstruction of the investigation based on transcripts from the hearings.

Gitai’s documentaries and feature films trace the political and religious rifts within Israeli society. His first documentary, “House,” was censored at its 1980 release because of how it portrayed Palestinians and Israelis living or having lived in the same house in Jerusalem. But the awards and acclaim he has since received at the Venice and Cannes film festivals have granted him a certain level of freedom to criticize the political situation in his home country.

Gitai arrived to filmmaking after studying architecture. In 1973, the Yom Kippur War broke out, and he was wounded when a missile shot down his rescue unit helicopter. The episode became the basis of his 2000 film, “Kippur.” After the war, he made short films for Israeli public television, followed by a period of exile in France and the creation of a series of fictional films. He arrived back in Israel in 1993, just as Rabin was signing the peace accord.

The stage performance also features live musicians, with pianist Edna Stern, soprano Keren Motseri and violinist Alexei Kotchekov performing works ranging from Bach to Britten. The interplay between words and music creates a haunting and mournful experience.

“It is like a lullaby or a story that narrates a mythological event,” Gitai said via e-mail.

Twenty years after Rabin’s death, are Israelis at risk of forgetting him? Gitai said he decided to do this project “as a gesture of memory and even hope.”

“Sometimes resurrecting a memory can make things happen,” he said. “But we must remain modest: Art is not the most effective way to change reality. Politics or machine guns have a much more direct effect. However, art sometimes preserves the memory at the moment when the powers in place want to erase it, because they want obedience; they do not want to be disturbed or challenged.”

“Yitzhak Rabin: Chronicle of an Assassination” is the third event in Ford Theatre’s “Ignite @ the Ford!,” a new 10-part series that brings far-reaching and challenging performances to a venue that has tended to focus on local programming.

“There’s a cadre of L.A.-based artists and presenters that have been served by the Ford, and we really wanted to increase the national and international presence, so as to raise the visibility of the venue,” said Olga Garay-English, the series curator and the interim executive director for Ford Theatres.

As part of the effort to freshen the programming, Garay-English proposed collaborations with “like-minded” institutions around the country. The Rabin play will have its North American premiere as part of Lincoln Center Festival five days before the Los Angeles performance. It premiered at the prestigious Avignon Festival in France in 2016.

Garay-English said she chose to present Gitai’s play because “it’s the kind of work that would really resonate in our community. Not just for people of Jewish descent, but it’s something that’s of critical concern to mankind as a whole.”

There is a third iteration of the project, besides the film and stage performance. Gitai created an installation, “Chronicle of an Assassination Foretold,” that was presented at the Maxxi museum in Rome, Bozar museum in Brussels and the Collection Lambert en Avignon in France. The show included ceramics, photographs and video installations related to Rabin’s assassination.

Gitai visits the West Bank in his latest work, “West of the Jordan River,” which debuted at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. It’s an intimate portrayal of ordinary Israeli and Palestinian citizens reflecting on the prospects for peace. While he found reasons for hope, Gitai said that 20 years after Rabin’s death, those prospects have vastly diminished.

“I am alarmed by the growing existence of a violent Jewish religious underground in the heart of Israeli secular society,” he said. “This is a disease that could very well destroy the democratic idea that Israel was founded on. In my mind, Israel in its origins was a political endeavor, not a religious one, a political conclusion of a long history of suffering by the Jewish people.”

He added, “Looking at the current Israeli reality, it seems the person who sketched out some kind of political alternative to the reality we’re in was Rabin. … So I decided that I would make this project [about Rabin’s assassination] not just as a director, but as an Israeli citizen. I think this is a voice of a memory that needs to be heard.”

“Yitzhak Rabin: Chronicle of an Assassination” will be performed at the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre, 2580 Cahuenga Blvd. East in Hollywood, at 8:30 p.m. July 23. For more information, visit fordtheatres.org. A screening of “Rabin, the Last Day” will take place at the Skirball Cultural Center, 2701 N. Sepulveda Blvd. in Los Angeles, at 7 pm. July 20. Tickets are $12 or free for those who purchased tickets to the play. Visit skirball.org

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‘David and the Philistine Woman’ imagines the man behind the mythical King David

Leave a Comment / Books / Jonathan Kirsch

Nothing in the Bible is quite like the life story of King David, as told in the Book of Samuel, for its potent blend of politics and passion. It’s the stuff of both Shakespearean tragedy and tabloid scandal, which is exactly why David has attracted the attention of authors ranging from John Dryden to William Faulkner to Joseph Heller, among many more.

The latest writer to reimagine King David is Paul Boorstin, the Los Angeles-based documentary filmmaker whose debut historical novel, “David and the Philistine Woman” (Top Hat Books), is rooted in the biblical text and yet soars into the realm of imagination. Where the Bible is spare and suggestive, Boorstin is ornate and explicit. Indeed, his real accomplishment is to extract David from pious tradition — the “sweet singer of Israel,” God’s “beloved” and anointed king — and present him to us as a flesh-and-blood human being.

Young David, for example, has long been depicted in religious art with a lyre in his hand, the instrument with which he soothed the rage and lifted the depression of King Saul. Boorstin, however, allows us to enter David’s mind as he plucks the strings of his famous instrument and, in doing so, deftly reminds us of David’s humble origins as a shepherd.

“The taut strands of sheep sinew allowed David to sense what would take place before his eyes could see it or his ears could hear,” the author writes. “Sometimes there was a sweetness in the notes, like turtle-doves at dawn, which filled him with hope. At other times, the notes stung like thorns, announcing that a dust storm was brewing or that a pack of wolves had cornered a ram in a ravine.”

Thus does Boorstin echo biblical words and phrases while evoking the setting in which a real shepherd would have worked. When David comes upon a ewe about to give birth, he wonders: “Had the Almighty sent him a sign at last?” But he quickly breaks off his reverie and sets about the task of easing the delivery. “In that tense moment, David did not pray to the Almighty. There was no time for prayer. It was his way to act quickly and let the work of his hands serve as prayer enough. He hastily wiped the mucous from the lamb’s nostrils with his tunic, to make it easier for the creature to breathe.”

Still, Boorstin recognizes and honors the charisma that the biblical David possesses. He adopts the name given to David’s mother in the Talmud, Nitzevet — she is unnamed in the Bible — and depicts her as a doting Jewish mother who sees greatness in her son: “Moses they respected,” David’s mother is made to say by the author to her son, “but you the people will love.”

Among the wealth of stories that are told about David in the Bible, Boorstin singles out the mythic battle between David and Goliath. As it appears in the Book of Samuel, the incident seems like a fairy tale, but Boorstin boldly introduces new and wholly imaginary characters and exploits to the old Sunday school favorite. For example, he credits Nitzevet for giving young David his first slingshot and teaching him how to use it. “The lyre allows you to feel,” she tells him, “but the sling allows you to act.”

Much of the narrative, in fact, is pure invention. Boorstin imagines a woman named Nara, the daughter of a Philistine ironsmith who secretly initiates her into the skills and rituals of making weapons, a craft that is reserved for men alone. Nara, who is unusually tall, is singled out to marry Goliath, “a fitting match for him in her strength and stature” precisely because she possesses “a body created by the god Dagon to bring forth Goliath’s heirs.” And the author contrives an elaborate conspiracy between David and Nara, each of whom is assigned a crucial role in the life and death of Goliath that appears nowhere in the Bible.

Pious readers of the Bible may object to the liberties Boorstin has taken with the ancient text. But “David and the Philistine Woman,” like other post-biblical works of art and authorship, also can be approached as a kind of midrash, if only because it may send the attentive reader back to the family Bible to find out what actually is written there and what originates only in the author’s imagination. Entirely aside from such hermeneutics, Boorstin deserves praise for writing a novel so full of adventure, intrigue and passion that it stands entirely on its own as a great yarn.

JONATHAN KIRSCH, book editor of the Jewish Journal, is the author of “King David: The Real Life of the Man Who Ruled Israel.”

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Senators support anti-BDS bill despite ACLU opposition

Leave a Comment / United States / Aaron Magid, Jewish Insider

Several Republican Senators have confirmed their support of the Senate anti-BDS legislation in face of strong opposition by civil liberties and liberal advocacy groups. The ACLU has strongly opposed the bipartisan Israel Anti Boycott Act — introduced by Ben Cardin (D-MD) and Rob Portman (R-OH) — noting “the bill would punish businesses and individuals based solely on their point of view.”

[This article originally appeared on jewishinsider.com]

In an interview with Jewish Insider on Wednesday, Senator Cory Gardner (R-CO) emphasized, “The BDS movement has moved far beyond the notion of free speech into hatred and anti-semitic territory. That’s why I believe it’s important that we push back as strongly as possible against any such movement… I strongly support efforts to combat the BDS movement.”

AIPAC has placed the Israel Anti-Boycott Act as a legislative priority. “I frequently disagree with the ACLU,” said Senator Todd Young (R-IN). “I think it’s consistent with our first amendment freedoms. There are always limits on every right that we have. I don’t think this tramples on the constitution. The [state] of Israel has been on the receiving end in international forums and increasingly on public universities of a pressure campaign to relent to their international critics. One of which is anti-Semitism and to distract from internal challenges. I think this bill is a necessary corrective to all those actions.”

In addition to free speech concerns, J Street has voiced its opposition to S.720 “blurring the Green Line under the guise of combating BDS.”

Given the pressure from ACLU and other liberal groups, some Democrats have been more hesitant about the legislation. “This is a dispute that I’m trying to resolve for myself,” Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) told Jewish Insider. “The ACLU’s position causes me concern. I have heard others argue that they are reading the bill wrong. Maybe that’s the case and maybe there’s something that could be added that could clarify that the free speech issues are not of concern.”

The Virginia lawmaker emphasized that Democratic members of the Senate Foreign Relation Committee had a meeting about the bill on Tuesday. “We are not expecting immediate action about this, but we are going to try and resolve this concern. Even the proponents of the bill: we don’t want to get into these free speech issues. So whether or not the ACLU position is right or wrong, I haven’t sat down with all of the statutes myself. We’ll continue to work on it,” he added.

However, for Senator James Risch (R-ID) the cause of fighting BDS is straightforward. “I think anti-Semitism is despicable and I think this legislation goes a long way to put that back on the shelf where it belongs,” he said.

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American Muslims are even ‘prouder’ than American Jews

Leave a Comment / Israel, News, Rosner's Domain / Shmuel Rosner

There are many ways to read a new survey by PEW on Muslims in America, and as I was reading it I realized that I can’t avoid reading it the Jewish way. That is, reading it and keeping an eye on the similarities and differences between Muslims and Jews in America (to a lesser extent, I was also looking at how American Muslims differ from Israel’s neighbors in the Middle East).

The survey is almost 200 pages long, so I suppose not everybody is going to read it in full. For you – Jewish non-readers (and possibly some readers) of the survey – I have a few highlights that I found interesting.

As the JTA reported – this was the headline they chose – Muslims in America are lesser in number than Jews but grow much faster. “Pew found that there are about 3.3 million Muslims in the United States, a little more than 1 percent of the population. U.S. Jews, by contrast, stand at 5.3 million — around 2 percent of all Americans.” The difference in growth is due to two main things: birthrate (Jews do not have many children) and immigration (most Muslims are new comers – they have a much larger pool of immigrants to draw from). In a previous study, PEW predicted that by 2050 there will be more Muslims than Jews in America. Of course, this will only happen if the current immigration patterns continue.

Until that happens, Muslims feel like a part of the American mainstream less than Jews do. 62% of Muslims think “the American people as a whole do not see Islam as part of mainstream American society.” They hear the talk about Judeo-Christian culture, and identify their religion’s absence from this (problematic) term. Pew reports that, indeed, a plurality of U.S. adults (50%) say they do not see Islam as part of mainstream American society. Muslims are still the group toward which Americans feel the least “warmth,” but an uptick “in positive feelings toward Muslims is notable.” The warmth gap, as measured by Pew’s “thermometer” of feelings was 23 degrees three years ago; now it is 19 degrees. But Jews are still at the top, and Muslims at the bottom.

Muslims are devout in practicing their religion, and they do not intermarry. Of course, all of the above is connected. But the story is hardly about the level of religiosity vs. the level of intermarriage. Two things have to be considered as we compare these two populations. One – Muslims are immigrants. When Jews were immigrants they also did not intermarry as much as they do now. Two – Muslims are a less coherent group than Jews. That is, because Islam is a religion and Judaism is not. It is the culture and religion of a people. Comparing the two groups is comparing apples and oranges.

If an American Jew hardly practices the “religious” part of Judaism, but travels to Israel every year, helps Jewish immigrants in the US, sends a letter to the newspaper protesting anti-Semitism in Hungary – we’d consider him an engaged Jew. The measures applied to Muslims are almost all “religious” in nature. Do they pray, do they follow the Quran, do they eat Halal food? Most Muslims in America (85%) think that believing in God is essential to being Muslim. Most Jews (68%) said that not believing in God is compatible with being Jewish.

Jews were asked a lot about Israel. Why? Because they are a people, and their homeland is Israel. Muslims were not asked about a specific country. Why? Because they are people who come from many countries and do not share a “homeland.” In fact, one of the most important things to know about the Muslim population in America is how diverse it is. “No single country accounts for more than 15% of adult Muslim immigrants to the United States (15% are from Pakistan). The countries with the next-highest totals are Iran (11% of Muslim immigrants), India (7%), Afghanistan (6%), Bangladesh (6%), Iraq (5%), Kuwait (3%), Syria (3%) and Egypt (3%).”

As you compare Muslims and Jews (apples and oranges) you see that some questions in the Pew survey that Jews tended to think were of great importance, are really quite vague. “American Jews overwhelmingly say they are proud to be Jewish” – thus the Pew report on Jews began when it was released in 2013. Some ink was spilled in an attempt to make this into proof of the Jewish community’s strength and vitality. Well – Muslims are even prouder: “Pride in being Muslim is nearly universal among U.S. Muslims, 97% of whom ‘completely’ or ‘mostly’ agree that they are proud to be Muslim.” And of course, it is good that everybody is “proud,” but in context it seems quite meaningless.

Subgroups – especially the one of black Muslims – merit special attention. There is a measure of alienation among these groups that is worrying. “U.S.-born black Muslims are less likely than other U.S.-born Muslims to say they have a lot in common with most Americans, and they are more likely than all other U.S. Muslims to say natural conflict exists between the teachings of Islam and democracy… [they] are more likely than other U.S. Muslims to say it has become harder in recent years to be Muslim in the United States. Nearly all American-born black Muslims (96%) say there is a lot of discrimination against Muslims in America.”

Muslims feel – they know – that they suffer more discrimination than members of some other groups. They complain about it, they worry because of it, they are clearly not happy thinking about it – and still, the overall tone of the report about them is not at all pessimistic. They are growing in numbers, they believe in the political system, they accept the supposed American deal – work hard, progress in life. Some of them are radicalized. But a clear majority integrate into society with vigor. One can only hope that one day more Muslims around the world will be like the Muslims in America.

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The Worst Humanitarian Crisis Since WWII

Leave a Comment / Blogs, Uncategorized, United States, Worldwide / Rabbi John Rosove

The United Nations has declared that the worst humanitarian crisis since World War II is taking place in a number of African countries and that twenty million people are at risk of starvation. The vast majority of the famine victims have been so affected not by natural disaster, but as a consequence of war and the massive displacement of populations, now numbering 25 million refugees worldwide.

This disturbing report is discussed on today’s “Pod Save the World” broadcast that you can download as an App or listen here – https://getcrookedmedia.com/pod-save-the-world-7cc67d64dd56)

David Miliband, President and CEO of the International Rescue Committee and a former Foreign Secretary of the United Kingdom, speaks with the host of Pod Save the World, Tommy Vietor who served under President Obama on the National Security Council.

Miliband notes that only fifteen percent of Americans are even aware of the crisis. What’s particularly disturbing, is that the vast majority of these twenty million at risk human beings is that the famine is not a result of natural disaster, but rather a consequence of war and displacement of populations, now number 25 million refugees worldwide.

The American United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley has said: “This is a crisis that should be leading every newscast and on the front page of every newspaper.”

What can we do right now to make a difference?Educate ourselves about this crisis and listening to this podcast is a good first step;

To date only thirty-five percent of the $6.5 billion needed to head off the famine has been collected. Money save lives – so donate money today to the Globalization Emergency Response Coalition – http://www.savethechildren.org/site/c.8rKLIXMGIpI4E/b.9531971/k.5213/Global_Emergency_Response_Coalition.htm
Apply political pressure to our congressional representatives on both sides of the aisle and explain that from a geo-strategic point of view, America’s withdrawal from many parts of the Muslim world gives the opportunity to malevolent forces to fill that void and make it more difficult to get food to those who are starving. Our congress people also need to be reminded that, as Miliband suggests, “We can’t enjoy the blessings of globalization unless we share the burdens of globalization.”
Put pressure on Congress to increase the number of refugees the United States accepts beyond the 85,000 minimum that President Obama set.

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Jewish Journal

Harel Skaat gives voice to LGBT issues in Israel

Director takes remembrance of Rabin to the stage

‘David and the Philistine Woman’ imagines the man behind the mythical King David

Cleveland Cavaliers bring in a Jewish general manager. Didn’t David Blatt coach there?

Senators support anti-BDS bill despite ACLU opposition

With sanctions and warnings, Trump and Congress step up pressure on Iran

Netanyahu eyeing way to shut down Al Jazeera in Israel

American Muslims are even ‘prouder’ than American Jews

The Worst Humanitarian Crisis Since WWII

Jewish Journal