I just learned that the great Hilda Silverman, activist, teacher, and writer, died yesterday, surrounded by family.
Hilda had tons of friends. I was one, though I never met her (we came close on a day last September, till her cancer treatment kept her from going out). But I corresponded with her frequently, sometimes signing my notes to her, "Love," because I found her to be such a nonjudgmental teacher and mother figure. She showed me that Jewishness was absolutely not a bar to criticizing Israel, in fact her Jewishness compelled her do so. Also I loved her because she was so straightforward. She wasn’t shrill or crazy, she was always logical and warm, and she could bark when she disagreed, but never meanly. And by the way, she didn’t want to be a mother figure; talk to your own mother about your mishigos, she would say, talk to me about human rights!
Here she is writing about a meeting with Yasir Arafat in the 80s. Here is her poem about Rachel Corrie. Here is her note to me about getting Paul Newman to undo the damage of "Exodus" by talking about the Nakba:
My argument to get funds from Newman is that having contributed
(albeit unwittingly) to the cause of Nakba denial and glorification of the
founding of Israel, he should help support efforts to tell “the other
side of the story.” (My secondary argument is that I’ve
purchased enough Newman oil and vinegar salad dressing over the years that some
of that Foundation money is *my* money, but I’m not sure I’d
feel comfortable raising that, especially in person)…. Lately I’ve
had a fantasy of a series of TV ads, where Paul Newman comes on screen and
starts out, “This is Ari Ben Canaan” and then goes on to describe
some incident that is indicative of the real story of what happened—and
is still happening–to Palestinians. Ideally, he would also in some way
allude to the almost-60-year cover-up, in which, however innocently, he
played a significant part.
Last summer Hilda was outspoken in the controversy over the recognition of Armenian genocide.
[W]hat we are
talking about here is the notion of expendable people. Most of us who
identify as Jews have a deep and visceral understanding that at many times and
in many parts of the world—and today still in *some* parts of the
world—we have been considered expendable. I think the extraordinary
passion and rage of the Armenian community in recent weeks has shown that this
is a community mobilized to say, in effect, “neither we as a people nor
our history are expendable”;So long as Palestinians (and, in some contexts,
Arabs and Muslims more generally) are still considered expendable—defined
as “enemy” “terrorist” “other” by
organizations, individuals, and governments with enormous power—none
of us is truly safe. As we in the Boston area have seen first hand in
recent weeks, the wheel can turn very, very quickly indeed!
A great spirit–now arcing across the sky. Bye Hilda! (I will let readers know about the family’s plans re donations, etc., later this week.)
