emma_goldman
15th October 2006, 03:55
http://www.nextbook .org/cultural/ feature.html% 3Fid%3D433& cid=0
10.13.06
Organizers and Agitators
A new documentary looks at the latest generation of Jewish
radicals
by Jennifer Bleyer
Last Passover, I went to a seder at an anarchist community
farm in upstate New York. About 30 people sat on cushions on
the floor, including the cheerful dozen or so who lived
together in the big creaky farmhouse and their visiting
family and friends.
Some things were reassuringly familiar. There was a seder
plate, cups of syrupy Manischewitz, and boxes of matzah.
Then the seder began. We read from Xeroxed copies of the
Love and Justice in Times of War Haggadah. The first item
was a social action blessing: "Blessed is the Source, who
shows us paths to holiness, and commands us to pursue justice."
The Haggadah recommended that everyone introduce themselves
with their name and preferred pronoun, in order to create a
friendlier space for transgender people. The first cup of
wine was dedicated to those around the world who have risen
up in protest against "unjust, racist and classist wars."
The traditional recitation of the ten plagues was recast as
the "ten plagues of the occupation of Palestine." Dipping
fingers into wine, they were mourned: blockades and
checkpoints, destruction of villages and homes, the security
wall, war crimes.
Agree with its ideology or not, this was clearly not your
old Maxwell House Haggadah, leaving you bored to tears and
counting down the pages until the meal. In Young, Jewish and
Left, an earnest and engaging if somewhat formless
documentary by Irit Reinheimer and Konnie Chameides (the
latter of whom -- full disclosure -- was at that upstate
seder, and who I met briefly), there's a scene with one of
the co-creators of the Love and Justice Haggadah, an
activist named Micah Bazant.
"There is a very old tradition, as old as any Jewish
tradition, of reinterpreting . . . especially Passover and
haggadot," Bazant says, nodding to Jewish activists who
preceded him, particularly Rabbi Arthur Waskow, who wrote
the 1969 "Freedom Seder," a civil rights-influenced
alternative Haggadah. About his own motivation to create a
new social justice Haggadah, Bazant gushes: "It was just love."
In fact, it seems to be just love that motivates the dozens
of young activists featured in Young, Jewish and Left, which
functions as a kind of sprawling introduction to the new
Jewish lefty scene. Occasional hints of brattiness, moments
of condescension, and fuzzily articulated ideas are more
than compensated for with humility, heart, and a basic human
acknowledgment that we're all in the same boat. ("We" being
not just Jews.) The young people depicted here seem to
collectively affirm Che Guevara's famous statement that "the
true revolutionary is guided by great feelings of love."
So, good, it begins with love. Then what? For the most part,
you get the feeling that this movement (if it can be called
a movement) is occupied primarily with opposing Israel, or
with queer and transgender issues, or both at once, as in
the case of a group called "Faygelehs for a Free Palestine."
There are times when it feels like the movie could have
narrowed its narrative lens just slightly and been renamed
"Young, Jewish and Anti-Occupation" or "Young, Jewish and
Queer."
Both of which are important issues better left for parsing
elsewhere. In the context of this film, however, it's
striking to notice how much the enemy has shifted. Once, it
was the pharaohs, the Cossacks, the czars, the Nazis, the
sweatshop bosses, the union busters. Now, we are told, young
Jewish leftists find themselves allied against other Jews --
either the heterosexist ones who laugh trannies and queers
out of shul, or the Zionist ones with their undying support
for Israel.
The identification of "mainstream" Jews as the oppressor by
the young leftists profiled in the film is so lacking in
nuance that it's sort of a relief when Loolwa Khazzoom, an
Iraqi-Jewish writer, explodes while recalling her experience
at a young Jewish lefty conference. "It was very clear that
the root of everything was that Jews are white European
oppressors and Palestinians are indigenous people of color
and the Jews have done terrible things to Palestinians, end
of story," Khazoom says. "And I had it! My family was kicked
out of Iraq. My family is Jewish refugees absorbed by the
state of Israel. I have been told that my family history is
completely irrelevant."
It's one of the film's few moments of tension. Because
Reinheimer and Chameides didn't really set out to posit or
defend any particular point, there are plenty of
contradictions. The film has the aura of being held together
punk-style with duct tape and staples and twine.
"Young, Jewish and Left" is most interesting from a purely
anthropological perspective, when the film just saunters
along, introducing us to people like Jonna Shelomith, an
anarchist revolutionary who traveled to Germany with her
"comrades" after the Berlin Wall fell and had an
unexpectedly moving experience at Auschwitz, and And A.
Lusia, a spunky young woman with dreadlocked pigtails who
took advantage of Birthright Israel's free trip offer to go
to Israel and confront Ariel Sharon. There is also a ticking
off of subcultural ephemera like the Jewcrew Cookbook
(motto: "Food for Thought, Recipes for Destruction" ), the
Suck My Treyf Gender party, a "queer, anti-imperialist Purim
cabaret," and the drag queens of Hadassah Ladies for Homos.
For those who wonder about the rightward political drift
that seems to have gone hand in hand with the upward class
drift of Jews in America, this film proves that the legacy
of Jewish socialists, anarchists, feminists, Yippies,
hippies, organizers, and agitators of the past century lives
on in some form. Here, after all, are their progeny.
Jennifer Bleyer is a journalist who lives in Brooklyn.
Young, Jewish and Left will be shown at Sarah Lawrence
College, in Bronxville, NY, on October 17, at 7 pm; at SUNY
Purchase, Purchase, NY, on October 26, at 7pm; and at the
Egyptian Theater, Hollywood, CA, on October 26, at 11:30 am.
10.13.06
Organizers and Agitators
A new documentary looks at the latest generation of Jewish
radicals
by Jennifer Bleyer
Last Passover, I went to a seder at an anarchist community
farm in upstate New York. About 30 people sat on cushions on
the floor, including the cheerful dozen or so who lived
together in the big creaky farmhouse and their visiting
family and friends.
Some things were reassuringly familiar. There was a seder
plate, cups of syrupy Manischewitz, and boxes of matzah.
Then the seder began. We read from Xeroxed copies of the
Love and Justice in Times of War Haggadah. The first item
was a social action blessing: "Blessed is the Source, who
shows us paths to holiness, and commands us to pursue justice."
The Haggadah recommended that everyone introduce themselves
with their name and preferred pronoun, in order to create a
friendlier space for transgender people. The first cup of
wine was dedicated to those around the world who have risen
up in protest against "unjust, racist and classist wars."
The traditional recitation of the ten plagues was recast as
the "ten plagues of the occupation of Palestine." Dipping
fingers into wine, they were mourned: blockades and
checkpoints, destruction of villages and homes, the security
wall, war crimes.
Agree with its ideology or not, this was clearly not your
old Maxwell House Haggadah, leaving you bored to tears and
counting down the pages until the meal. In Young, Jewish and
Left, an earnest and engaging if somewhat formless
documentary by Irit Reinheimer and Konnie Chameides (the
latter of whom -- full disclosure -- was at that upstate
seder, and who I met briefly), there's a scene with one of
the co-creators of the Love and Justice Haggadah, an
activist named Micah Bazant.
"There is a very old tradition, as old as any Jewish
tradition, of reinterpreting . . . especially Passover and
haggadot," Bazant says, nodding to Jewish activists who
preceded him, particularly Rabbi Arthur Waskow, who wrote
the 1969 "Freedom Seder," a civil rights-influenced
alternative Haggadah. About his own motivation to create a
new social justice Haggadah, Bazant gushes: "It was just love."
In fact, it seems to be just love that motivates the dozens
of young activists featured in Young, Jewish and Left, which
functions as a kind of sprawling introduction to the new
Jewish lefty scene. Occasional hints of brattiness, moments
of condescension, and fuzzily articulated ideas are more
than compensated for with humility, heart, and a basic human
acknowledgment that we're all in the same boat. ("We" being
not just Jews.) The young people depicted here seem to
collectively affirm Che Guevara's famous statement that "the
true revolutionary is guided by great feelings of love."
So, good, it begins with love. Then what? For the most part,
you get the feeling that this movement (if it can be called
a movement) is occupied primarily with opposing Israel, or
with queer and transgender issues, or both at once, as in
the case of a group called "Faygelehs for a Free Palestine."
There are times when it feels like the movie could have
narrowed its narrative lens just slightly and been renamed
"Young, Jewish and Anti-Occupation" or "Young, Jewish and
Queer."
Both of which are important issues better left for parsing
elsewhere. In the context of this film, however, it's
striking to notice how much the enemy has shifted. Once, it
was the pharaohs, the Cossacks, the czars, the Nazis, the
sweatshop bosses, the union busters. Now, we are told, young
Jewish leftists find themselves allied against other Jews --
either the heterosexist ones who laugh trannies and queers
out of shul, or the Zionist ones with their undying support
for Israel.
The identification of "mainstream" Jews as the oppressor by
the young leftists profiled in the film is so lacking in
nuance that it's sort of a relief when Loolwa Khazzoom, an
Iraqi-Jewish writer, explodes while recalling her experience
at a young Jewish lefty conference. "It was very clear that
the root of everything was that Jews are white European
oppressors and Palestinians are indigenous people of color
and the Jews have done terrible things to Palestinians, end
of story," Khazoom says. "And I had it! My family was kicked
out of Iraq. My family is Jewish refugees absorbed by the
state of Israel. I have been told that my family history is
completely irrelevant."
It's one of the film's few moments of tension. Because
Reinheimer and Chameides didn't really set out to posit or
defend any particular point, there are plenty of
contradictions. The film has the aura of being held together
punk-style with duct tape and staples and twine.
"Young, Jewish and Left" is most interesting from a purely
anthropological perspective, when the film just saunters
along, introducing us to people like Jonna Shelomith, an
anarchist revolutionary who traveled to Germany with her
"comrades" after the Berlin Wall fell and had an
unexpectedly moving experience at Auschwitz, and And A.
Lusia, a spunky young woman with dreadlocked pigtails who
took advantage of Birthright Israel's free trip offer to go
to Israel and confront Ariel Sharon. There is also a ticking
off of subcultural ephemera like the Jewcrew Cookbook
(motto: "Food for Thought, Recipes for Destruction" ), the
Suck My Treyf Gender party, a "queer, anti-imperialist Purim
cabaret," and the drag queens of Hadassah Ladies for Homos.
For those who wonder about the rightward political drift
that seems to have gone hand in hand with the upward class
drift of Jews in America, this film proves that the legacy
of Jewish socialists, anarchists, feminists, Yippies,
hippies, organizers, and agitators of the past century lives
on in some form. Here, after all, are their progeny.
Jennifer Bleyer is a journalist who lives in Brooklyn.
Young, Jewish and Left will be shown at Sarah Lawrence
College, in Bronxville, NY, on October 17, at 7 pm; at SUNY
Purchase, Purchase, NY, on October 26, at 7pm; and at the
Egyptian Theater, Hollywood, CA, on October 26, at 11:30 am.