Comments on: Hilda Silverman, Human Rights Leader, Passes On

By: Richard Witty

Richard Witty — Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:00:00 +0000

Goodbye.

It was wonderful to hear of your commitment and concern.

By: Joachim Martillo

Joachim Martillo — Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:00:00 +0000

Hilda Silverman was a wonderful person. I liked her very much.

By: Joachim Martillo

Joachim Martillo — Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:00:00 +0000

http://eaazi.blogspot.com/2007/10/zionist-film-exodus-terrorism-is-good.html contains a clip from Exodus, whose production the Israeli government as well as important members of Judonia directly and indirectly aided and funded.

http://members.aol.com/ThorsProvoni/JudoniaII/JudoniaIIb.htm#_ftnref220

A good number of Yiddish Americans, who generally had some connection to Eastern European cinema or theater (see Followup (II): Origins of Modern Jewry[220]), fairly quickly managed to stake out Hollywood as an “empire of their own,” whose Yiddish elite became the “Hollywood Crowd.”

Sander Gilman points out in Smart Jews: The Construction of the Image of Jewish Superior Intelligence[221] on p. 178 that the “German Jewish ancestry of [the ’boy genius’ Irving Thalberg] was almost unique among the Eastern European Jews of Hollywood.”

Despite the wishes of Yiddish studio owners, Hollywood Yiddishkeyt often expressed itself during the 20s and 30s by presenting a positive image of communism and the Soviet Union. (See Re: Report: Finkelstein Lecture at MIT.[222]) After the start of the Cold War, the Blacklist, and the Rosenberg Trial, Yiddish Hollywood discovered its love for Zionism, and since the 1950s the Hollywood Crowd has played an immense role in the Zionist indoctrination of America. Films like Rules of Engagement (2000)[223] are as sinister as any German Nazi anti-Jewish production, and many members of the Hollywood Crowd deserve imprisonment for incitement to genocide of Arabs, Muslims and Palestinians as well as related crimes against humanity at least as much as Otto Dietrich, who was the Third Reich Press Chief.

[See Ghada Karmi's Boston College Talk,[224] The Jewish Enemy: Nazi Propaganda During World War II and the Holocaust[225] by Jeffrey Herf, Zionist Film: Exodus - Terrorism is Good,[226] Married to Another Man, Married to Another Woman,[227] Zionist Film: Even Costa-Gavras Makes a Zionist Propaganda Film,[228] and Zionist Film: Normalizing Jewish Dual Loyalties.[229]]

By: Sue Katz

Sue Katz — Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:00:00 +0000

Hilda was a beloved member of our group, Jewish Women for Justice in Israel/Palestine. When we heard the news this morning, we were remembering that she was still making it to our meetings, through her treatment, despite her exhaustion. Hilda's commitment to justice was stronger than any disease. She leaves a massive gap in our group and our lives.
Sue

By: alan meyers

alan meyers — Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:00:00 +0000

Thanks for that memory, Phil. Hilda was all you say, and of course more, in person. There was no one I trusted and respected more on the subject of Israel and Palestine. When the Second Intifada roused me from my lifelong avoidance of involvement in the I/P conflict, and I realized that progressive Jews above all should take this on, I looked and looked around the Boston area for how I could plug in, and finally found my way to Hilda, who spent maybe an hour on the phone with me, sight unseen and out of the blue. Her clarity, her humanity, her commitment to justice never failed to inspire me. In this period of loss, I'm having trouble imagining a Hilda-less world…

By: Charles Keating

Charles Keating — Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:00:00 +0000

"I have a home.
I am allowed to go see the ocean."

I think this is what Witty et al want to insure. I never met him, except by his postings on this blog. This is the part of Zionism that is honest and understandably righteous.

Yet it is about means and ends.

Phil sees this. There cannot be expendable people.
Otherwise, the group injustice comes around, eventually.

The whole thing reminds me of Affirmative Action.
We can see why.
But two wrongs don't make a right.

That's why Obama now has to face the white working class, has to actually go have a can of beer with them, and bowl.

That's why Hillary is pretending to champion them.

That's why McCain is a senile fool.

Fly-over country, is it the Irish working Class in W VA? The camel jockeys and rag heads the world over?

Look at Bolivia.

By: Marty Federman

Marty Federman — Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:00:00 +0000

Thanks for your memories, references and thoughts. As you note, Hilda had an incredible impact on many of us. I would be a decidedly different person – and Jew – had it not been for her. Like, I know, so many others I already feel a huge empty place in my life knowing that Hilda won't be around any more. She will, indeed, be missed and your words are greatly appreciated.

By: Susie Rivo

Susie Rivo — Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:00:00 +0000

Thank you so much to your loving tribute to Hilda Silverman, who I feel so fortunate to have had as a dear friend for almost 20 years. I met Hilda on a delegation to Israel/Palestine. Despite our almost 30 year age difference, we quickly became and stayed close friends all these years, sharing many birthdays, holidays, films, forwarded articles and picket lines. Like others have said, Hilda had an uncanny, almost innate understanding of fairness and justice, and never hesitated to speak out with great honesty and feeling. She possessed an ever-reliable and well-grounded moral compass, particularly when it came to Israel/Palestine. I trusted implicitly her nuanced and principled positions on this subject.

Hilda exuded tremendous warmth, intensity, empathy, and emotional immediacy that did not cloud, but rather sharpened her political analysis. She never took herself too seriously, and understood that even if her actions might have little impact in the realm of "realpolitik", they were necessary - to make herself feel a little better, and, more importantly, so that those who are oppressed and maligned do not have to suffer without solidarity. Another wonderful attribute was her understated, but impeccable aesthetic that always made her apartment(in various incarnations as she moved over the years) an oasis of peace and calm. Hilda inspired and influenced so many of us and will be dearly missed.