December 4, 2019

When Bob Dylan Came to My Apartment

Leave a Comment / Columnists / Mark Schiff

“Do you ever wonder just what God requires? You think He’s just an errand boy to satisfy your wandering desires?” — Bob Dylan

“You call that singing? Shut that garbage off.” — my mother

Bob Dylan, just a Jewish boy from Minnesota. I’ve listened to Dylan nonstop for over 50 years.

In 1976, I was living in Greenwich Village, begging for money and writing poetry. I even had a poet’s beard. One evening, I was at a rock club called The Bottom Line with my lifelong buddy, Bernie Ferrera. Seated three tables away from us were Bob Dylan, his wife, Sara, and their friend Louie Kemp.

I grabbed the menu off our table and went over for an autograph. He gladly signed it. Without missing a beat, I said, “After the show, would you and your friends like to come over for a cup of tea?” I had never done anything like that before. He then asked where I lived. I mumbled, “Six blocks away.” He stared at me as if he were X-raying my soul. He told me to write down my address and he would be there. I said, “Really?” He nodded, and my head exploded.

During the two-hour show, all I could think of was Dylan’s visit. After the show, we ran back to my apartment, which I shared with two roommates. My gay roommate happened to be home and, when I told him that Dylan was coming over, he snapped, “Why didn’t you call me? I would have baked a cake.”

An hour passed and no Dylan. Maybe he wasn’t coming. Maybe I was dreaming. People probably invite him places every day. Why was this night different from all other nights? The answer is, “Because it was.”

The doorbell rang. I looked out the window and the three of them stood there. I ran down to let them in. When someone you deeply respect keeps his promise like Dylan did, it means the world to you.

Up the long flight of stairs, the four of us trekked. All I could think about was Bob Dylan is at my house, now what? Sara and Kemp sat on my old couch (which I had found on the street) and Dylan stood leaning on a small stepladder tapping his fingers. He wouldn’t answer any questions about himself but kept inquiring about me. “What do you do, man?” “How long have you been writing poetry, man?” Dylan was interviewing me. Pretty cool. Then just like that, after 40 minutes, Dylan said, “We got to go, man. See you again.” And poof, they were gone. I can only imagine that our conversation had to have been one of the least interesting experiences of his life. I had nothing to say. Yet it was amazing.

All I could think about was Bob Dylan is at my house, now what?

A few months later, I was back at the same club and this time John Lennon was sitting with singer Maria Muldaur. I asked him over for tea and he politely declined. Maybe he’d spoken with Dylan.

Cut to 20 years later. It’s Shabbos and I’m in shul talking to this guy who introduces himself as Louie Kemp. I said, “I know that name.” Then I remembered. I said, “Louie, you, Bob and Sara came to my house in Greenwich Village.” He kind of remembered the night and said I was lucky to have caught Dylan at a very open time in his life. Since then, Kemp and I have been friends.

A few years later, Kemp and I were on our way to see Dylan perform in Los Angeles. He said, “First we have to stop and pick up Joni Mitchell at her house.” Pretty cool. When we got there, Mitchell asked me if I wanted a cup of tea while she got ready. Sure did.

Sometime after that, I saw Dylan at Young Israel of Century City at his grandson’s bar mitzvah. It was good to see him again. I didn’t say hello because I sensed he wanted to be left alone. But thank you, God, for Bob Dylan. And thank God I like tea. All I can tell you is, “Never be afraid to ask. You just might receive.”

Mark Schiff is a comedian, actor and writer.

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It’s Time for Mizrahi Studies on Campus

Leave a Comment / Columnists / Tabby Refael

As an undergraduate at UC San Diego, I was active in our campus pro-Israel group. I loved every minute of it, even if it meant that I spent one hot Israeli Independence Day celebration on campus dressed as the back half of a camel, with Israeli friends joking and yelling, “Yalla!”

One afternoon, I was “tabling” to promote a pro-Israel event when suddenly, a student came up to me and screamed, “White colonialist!” before darting away.

I was shocked … and thrilled. Not so much about the “colonialist” accusation, but the “white” part.

Well, hit me over the head with a Persian cucumber, I thought. When did I become white?

Growing up in Los Angeles as a refugee who was often made to feel inferior by some of my American-born peers, I would have sold out my own mother to have been considered “white,” like the beautiful blond girls in school, or the enviable character Michelle Tanner on ABC’s “Full House.” I loathed Tanner with the fiery envy of a thousand burning kebab skewers.

Soon after that incident on campus, I began to look closely at other members of our pro-Israel student group: half of them weren’t white, either. They were Iranian, Iraqi, Moroccan and Yemenite Jews. In truth, I knew nothing of their history.

If I, a Jew who was born in Iran, didn’t know about the 850,000 Jews who escaped from or were kicked out of the Middle East and North Africa, there wasn’t much hope for anyone else on campus. I realized that UC San Diego badly needed a Mizrahi history course as part of its Jewish Studies program.

We are blessed with many Jewish Studies departments, but as one scholar and friend recently complained, they’re highly Ashkenormative.

Israeli leaders had an epiphany about Mizrahi history, too. In 2014, Israel officially designated Nov. 30 as a “Day to Mark the Departure and Expulsion of Jews from the Arab Countries and Iran.” The date is symbolic: On Nov. 29, 1947, the U.N. adopted the Partition Plan for Palestine, and the next day, Jews in the Middle East felt the palpable tension with their Muslim neighbors, as Israel was close to achieving formal statehood.

In the United States, we’re blessed with many Jewish Studies departments, but as one East Coast scholar and friend recently complained, they’re “highly Ashkenormative.”

I can’t speak to this, but I do recall there was little mention of Mizrahi Jews in any Jewish Studies classes I ever took. I was in my late 20s before I learned that Hillel, the famous Jewish scholar who died in 10 C.E., was born in Babylon, effectively making him … Persian. I wondered, if Hillel houses across the country knew the origins of their namesake, would they consider swapping Ashkenazi bagels for Persian lavash bread at programs every now and then? Nothing against bagels, but have you ever tried warm lavash with feta cheese?

UCLA has a unique Sephardic Studies program as part of the Alan D. Leve Center for Jewish Studies, whose director is Sarah Abrevaya Stein. For nearly a decade until the spring of 2018, UCLA also had a popular class called “Iranian Jewish Life: Past and Present,” taught by my friend Saba Soomekh. UCLA also has an interdepartmental class on the history of Iranian Jews, taught by Nahid Pirnazar. Brandeis University in Massachusetts has the Marash and Ocuin Chair in Ottoman, Mizrahi, and Sephardic Studies, but we need more philanthropic families to step up and sponsor such positions nationwide.

Let me make one thing clear: Like Israel Studies, university courses dedicated to Mizrahi history must not be founded on the basis of advocacy, but because such a topic is worth learning. It would be vital that both Jewish as well as non-Jewish students enrolled in courses that taught such history, in all its vivid richness and abhorrent persecution.
It’s almost 2020, and I believe the average American college student doesn’t even know that Mizrahi Jews exist, especially not in Israel, which, in their eyes, is probably full of pale-faced, Ashkenazi rabbis who uphold apartheid and create a white, privileged human chain to keep everyone else out of holy Tel Aviv.

It’s time for a change. From Los Angeles to Syracuse, we need Mizrahi Studies, now more than ever. Yalla.

Tabby Refael is a Los Angeles-based writer and speaker.

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Brown University Committee Votes to Recommend Divestment from Israel

Leave a Comment / Online, United States / Aaron Bandler

A Brown University committee voted on Dec. 2 to recommend the university divest from companies that conduct business with Israel.

The Brown Daily Herald reports that the Advisory Committee on Corporate Responsibility in Investment Practices (ACCRIP) voted with six in favor, two against and one abstaining. The recommendation stated that the university needed to stop investing in “companies identified as facilitating human rights abuses in Palestine.”

Brown Students for Israel condemned the committee vote in a Facebook post.

“We are appalled by the disregard and disrespect to which anti-Divest students, faculty, alumni and even ACCRIP members, were subjected in the course of today’s meeting,” they wrote. “We continue to support measures that promote cooperation and dialogue, not measures that promote division and demonization.”

Brown alumnus Jeffrey Liss wrote in a letter to the Herald that ACCRIP engaged in an act of hypocrisy.

“What about companies identified as facilitating human rights abuses in, for example, China (one million Muslim Uighurs held for forcible indoctrination in internment prisons, and then there is Tibet), Myanmar (one million Rohingya forced to flee the country), India (actions against its Muslims), Pakistan (actions against its Hindus), Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq?” Liss wrote. “Silence.”

He argued that such a double-standard was anti-Semitic.

“The vote mirrors the dramatic, ugly rise in anti-Jewish sentiment and actions throughout Europe,” Liss wrote. “For Brown University to go along with that? For shame.”

StandWithUs Executive Director of Research and Strategy Max Samarov said in a statement to the Journal, “All this committee has done is harm its own credibility by standing on the wrong side of history. Divestment efforts like this one are ultimately about ending Israel’s existence, not stopping ‘social harm’. It is now up to the Brown administration to prevent this from harming the reputation of the entire university. We are proud of the leadership of Brown Students for Israel, who worked tirelessly to educate committee members, administration, and their peers on why Divest’s proposal is harmful to the Brown community. This vote will not deter them from supporting Israel on campus.”

The Brown University Divest student group tweeted that they were elated about the ACCRIP vote.

“ACCRIP’s vote made Brown the first university in the Ivy League to call for divestment from companies that facilitate the Occupation and its abuses of the human rights of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza,” they wrote. “We expect the @BrownUniversity Corporation to divest from these companies (including Caterpillar, Motorola, Boeing, Raytheon, and more). In March, 69% of undergraduate student voters voted for divestment, and now Brown’s corporate responsibility in investments committee has too.”

ACCRIP's vote made Brown the first university in the Ivy League to call for divestment from companies that facilitate the Occupation and its abuses of the human rights of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.

— Brown University Divest (@BrownDivest) December 2, 2019

We expect the @BrownUniversity Corporation to divest from these companies (including Caterpillar, Motorola, Boeing, Raytheon, and more). In March, 69% of undergraduate student voters voted for divestment, and now Brown's corporate responsibility in investments committee has too.

— Brown University Divest (@BrownDivest) December 2, 2019

University spokesperson Brian Clark told the Journal in an email that the university is not going to render a decision on the recommendation until it’s presented to University President Christina Paxson.

“Our understanding is that a number of ACCRIP members had not seen the resolution prior to the vote, and therefore the committee intends some process of further review with its members before submitting to the president a report in support of a recommendation for consideration,” Clark wrote.

In March, a campuswide referendum calling for divestment from companies that conduct business with Israel passed with 69% in favor. Paxon stated at the time saying that she rejected the referendum.

“In 2013, when a number of academic associations called for academic boycotts of Israel, I made it clear that Brown would not support academic boycotts of Israel or any other country, since doing so would inhibit the open scholarly exchange that is critical for the advancement of knowledge,” Paxson said. “The previous year, I had rejected a recommendation from Brown’s Advisory Committee on Corporate Responsibility in Investment Policies to initiate dialogue about possible divestment from companies that do business in the occupied territories, expressing the same view that the endowment is not to be used to assert views on contested social and political issues.”

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Israel on the Edge

Leave a Comment / Editor's Note / David Suissa

It’s crazy to think about it. With a predatory regime like Iran on its doorstep and more than 100,000 terror missiles pointed at its citizens, Israel still can’t put together a government. The country has been without a government for almost a year — how long can this continue?

As I write this on Dec. 3, Israel still has until Dec. 11 to make this Hanukkah miracle happen and avoid yet another election. Right now, though, it looks as if Startup Nation has turned into Shut Down Nation.

Journalism doesn’t do well with stalemates. We like to cover real news, real events, real policy decisions. This never-ending spectacle of Israeli politicians who can’t get their act together and build a governing coalition is not just dangerous for the state and a shame for the country, it’s also exceedingly tedious.

I’ve been following Israeli news for months, virtually on the hour, and every day feels like the movie “Groundhog Day.” For a country known for its restlessness and creative energy, this paralysis must be painful to watch.

The optimist will argue it’s a sign of strength that a country can function even with a paralyzed government. The pessimist will give up in despair and call for radical changes to “the system.”

For a country known for its restlessness and creative energy, this paralysis must be painful to watch.

The realist will sigh and try to make sense of an impossible mess. That realist is our political editor Shmuel Rosner.

In his cover story this week, Rosner lays out the perfect storm of six fateful decisions that created this epic stalemate.

Each decision on its own makes sense. The first one, for example, was the decision by Benny Gantz and Yair Lapid to form the Blue and White Party and present itself as an alternative to Likud.

“Had the center-left remained fractured,” Rosner writes, “Netanyahu could probably convince one party to join his coalition.”

Another fateful decision was Avigdor Lieberman’s stubborn refusal to join a right-wing coalition with Charedi parties. “Had Lieberman agreed, in April or September, to join the right-religious bloc, there would be a coalition,” Rosner writes.

Yet another crucial decision was the refusal by Gantz and other leaders on the center-left (including Labor’s Amir Peretz) to join a coalition headed by Netanyahu, who has been embroiled in legal troubles. “Had Gantz or Peretz agreed to sit under Netanyahu,” Rosner writes, “he would have a government.”

Perhaps the most fateful of all moves was Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit’s decision to indict Netanyahu on several corruption charges, including the especially serious one of bribery. “Had Netanyahu not been indicted,” Rosner writes, “he might have had a chance to still form a coalition with both his bloc and Blue and White.”

Which brings me to the crux of the crisis: “Bibi” Netanyahu. However one may feel about him, Bibi is the only person in Israel who can resolve the crisis in five minutes — by stepping down. All he has to do is respect his own sentiments, which he expressed in 2008 regarding embattled former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert:

“A prime minister steeped up to his neck in investigations doesn’t have a moral or public mandate to make such fateful decisions regarding the State of Israel,” Netanyahu said. “There is a real, not unfounded fear that he will make decisions based on his own interests of political survivability rather than the national interest.”

If those sentiments were for a leader who was not yet indicted, how much more applicable they must be for a leader who has been indicted.

In the end, like a Greek tragedy, the man who has led Israel for the past decade continues to be the main story. The great survivor is not giving up.

But let’s say you have no time for philosophy and want to think practically. Let’s say you’re a member of Bibi’s Likud party. If your leader could not put together a coalition before being indicted, what’s the likelihood he will do so after being indicted?

In other words, all roads lead to Bibi.

You’ll get a lot more analysis in Rosner’s story, including possible scenarios moving forward and the likelihood that Israel will have another election.

In the end, like a Greek tragedy, the man who has led Israel for the past decade continues to be the main story. The great survivor is not giving up. He wants to stay on top for as long as possible to delay and possibly disrupt his legal reckoning, even if it means many more months of political paralysis.

But if Bibi is serious about putting the “national interest” first, he should do one more thing for his country, something that must be excruciatingly difficult for him — allow someone else to take over.

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