A tale of two events

[sabotabby]

Last night, I went to see Sumud + Clinical Silence at the Redwood Theatre, put on by East End Acts and featuring Omar El Akkad, Tarek Loubani, Dorotea Gucciardo, Jay Geerts, and Samira Mohyeddin, with a dance performance by Mona Ayesh. It was long, intense, and heartwrenching. As Omar El Akkad put it, there is nothing that you could say that will get me back in line in regards to Palestine. However. I make a point of not watching gory footage—not because I don't care, but because it doesn't help the victims in any way for me to be upset. Sumud in particular is shockingly graphic, featuring an American anesthesiologist who travels to Gaza to provide medical support.



I don't know, I guess I have people in my life who maybe don't wholeheartedly support Israel's current government but feel that it's a necessity, some kind of safety net against a future genocide, and believe that the national project was still worth doing in some way. I find it hard to have discussions with those folks and do kind of want to strap them Clockwork Orange style and make them watch this film. Tarek said that more facts won't convince anyone, and I don't think that's true because facts did convince me, and I get where he's coming from but I think it's important to know that after Israel withdrew from Gaza after Hamas won the election, they sealed it off and 100% of dialysis patients died within the year, 100% of cancer patients within the next 2-7 years.

I'm hard to shock. These are all things that I know, objectively, and yet when I'm confronted with them so bluntly I can still be shocked. It's important to still feel things.

This afternoon, I went with ioplokon to see a rather spectacular production of Fiddler On the Roof in Yiddish. I was also genuinely moved—these are my people, this is the culture that I can be proud of, even if I'd be as at odds with it as Tzeitel and Hodel are. It's really well done and if they remount it wherever you live, go see it. In a juster parallel universe, Yiddish is my first language, and it was really beautiful to hear it spoken. Also the actor playing Tevye is just jaw-droppingly good.

Of course, there is one part in it where, having been evicted by the Tsar's men, everyone must leave Anatevka. While Tevye, Golde, and their two youngest daughters will find safety in America, Hodel is stuck in Siberia and Tzeitel and Motel will go to Poland, to an historically uncertain fare. Yente announces that she's going to Israel, and this got a smattering of applause from some people in the audience who do not see the irony in a story about a group of people who are routinely stripped of their homes and possessions and forced to uproot, under threat of extreme violence, over and over again.

(The irony was, I think realized in the production itself, which throws its strongest sympathies behind the socialist student Perchik and his vision of a better, multicultural, and just future.)

I don't have a particularly clever way to conclude it, beyond that I'm glad I saw both things, I hope other people will see them and talk about them.

Comments

[sovay]

these are my people, this is the culture that I can be proud of, even if I'd be as at odds with it as Tzeitel and Hodel are.

I am of the firm belief that if you don't argue with any of it, you're not actually doing Judaism.

(I saw Fidler afn dakh at the NYTF in 2018 and it still sticks with me. There was even an official cast recording after all.)

*hugs*

[sabotabby]

That's one of the things that I love about the story. Tevye's faith and sense of reality are continually challenged and broken throughout, but this is never depicted as a bad thing or leading him to be less of a Jew.

[ioplokon]

This is the same production we saw & same Tevye at least (not sure about the rest of the cast)

[dewline]

Yes, it is important to feel things. To know there are things that matter.

[sabotabby]

Yup.

[gingicat]

I love everything about my job except being surrounded by Israel supporters.

The Israelis on the Purimgifts server said they couldn't in good conscience celebrate Independence Day this year. (Edit: at least I think that's what they meant? They said it was terrible but didn't allude to Palestine so much as all of Netanyahu's policies.)

[sabotabby]

Hey, I'll take what I can get. I think Netanyahu is a feature, not a bug, but I'm in favour of anything that chips away at the genocide good actually consensus.