Hilda Silverman’s Finally Getting Her ‘Nakba’ Meeting With Paul Newman

Last spring my friend Hilda Silverman died, a leader on pro-Palestinian issues and a mentor to me on the idea that Jewish identity doesn't have to be captured by Israel. I think of Hilda now because one of her issues was  getting Paul Newman to make up for the fact that he played the militant Zionist (and Holocaust survivor) Ari Ben Canaan in the movie Exodus, thereby solidifying the American understanding of Partition and Israeli history forever and also contributing to Nakba denial in the Jewish community for 60 years. Hilda wanted Newman to make up for it by doing an ad about the Nakba. Well Hilda never got the call back, and then she died, and I guess Newman has missed his chance to make up, too. But if I know Hilda, she's giving him a piece of her mind right now.