Jenny Grossbard, 25, lives in New York. This piece first appeared on her blog, Overcoming Zion, ten days ago, with the title, "The Metro-West Jewish News."
At the peak of his absurdity, the author writes:
"Jewish anti-Zionists are in love with Jewish powerlessness,
because so many of the traits they associate
with Judaism
flourished when Jews lacked power.
Instead,
teach your kids about THE THINGS ISRAELIS EAT
the SCHOOLS THEY ATTEND
the way THEY CELEBRATE
and MOURN."
Emphases mine.
This is the article my mom bothered to send by snail-mail?
Firstly, you're my mom--
and I love you!
Secondly,
God help me.
Productive conversations will never break through the petrification
of borrowed words, not to mention
borrowed worlds.
Thirdly,
MOMMY!--
Having raised me with golden values
that I simply extended to their logical conclusion,
why don't you know
that talk about "balance," as your scribbled note implies,
is disgusting in the face of oppression?
Listen, I love you,
which is why your contradictions break my heart.
You're not alone in your evasions of justice,
the ones that eventually ossify
into apartheid walls,
the violence of ignorance
and stupidity.
Above all,
the article itself is a form of theft,
nothing less than armed robbery,
of the songs and art and food and dance
and the lilting tongue
and the wild heat of the Arab world
and the stolen nourishment of Palestine
and its rural salads in your liar dressing
and the deliberate irony of chooomoooos spread
on challah
that fuel with Promethean fire
spasmodic nights of dabke dancing
breaking out at the climax of every bar and bat mitzvah
like at the one you had made for me.
What a shameless wonder,
that article that is entitled What shall we tell the children?
Whose children?
Well,
this author's so full of shit he needs a diaper change.
I don't need to clean up his mess.
I need to hide his laptop.
Or maybe-- I'll hold onto his article,
frame it,
so when history turns its rueful head towards justice and truth
I'll quote him.
Yes, I'll frame it,
donate it to the Nakba Museum yet to be built,
as an outgrowth of the Holocaust Museum,
next to the names of the Jewish victims of European genocide
that the author slaughtered a second time.
When history strains its neck
to testify to the ruins of the past,
wouldn't all the authors of Zionism love to drown their ink,
disappear into the Euphrates River,
as the House of Zionist Wisdom crumbles in darkness and defeat?
They and their forefathers,
as a matter of course,
will answer to decades' worth of theft and destruction.
They shall be made to sip from their own polluted waters
so that our rivers run clean once again.
Does the author realize the logical fallacy of such a statement or has Ziocane numbed him to logic?
Avi, you left out the “i” in ziocaine. It’s easy to remember, it’s a contraction of “Zionist cocaine”.
And parents, please remember, PEP pills are the gateway drug. And children may embark on a lifetime of addiction by filching them from your medicine cabinet. Be careful.
Do you really want your children to have to go through the struggle and heartache this young woman is describing in poetry? Better they shouldn’t start.
Got it. Ziocane, Ziocane, Ziocane….
Ziocaine® “Numbs ya to other peoples pain”
A couple of weeks ago, just before the Sabbath, my mother instant-messaged me: “I just heard something very disturbing. Tell me it’s not true, so I don’t brood all Shabbat. Are you an anti-Zionist? I know you are very critical of Israel. So am I. But I threw in my lot with the Zionists many years ago and gave up the land of my birth for Zionism.”
The question caught me off guard. I have never hidden my views about Israel and Zionism, and have even told others in the family that I oppose Zionism itself. It never occurred to me that my mother still held any illusions about me, or that I had never actually “called the child by its name” (as the Hebrew expression goes) in conversation with her. (Sounds like a classic coming-out-of-the-closet story, doesn’t it?) I didn’t lie, but I didn’t tell the truth either. I asked exactly what she had heard (that I didn’t want to send my daughter to a Jewish community summer camp – because it was Zionist), and explained that “my” local Jewish community, taught victimism and racism, and supported Israel under any and all circumstances, and I didn’t want to have any part of it. She said she understood and was relieved. I wished her a “shabbat shalom” and felt like a coward.
“I wished her a “shabbat shalom” and felt like a coward.”
No need, Shmuel, it’s your Mom. My Mom could short-circuit my entire brain with the lift of one eybrow, all the way into my forties, until, God rest her, she died at 76.
One example: I was in my forties, had been married twice, had been on my own since I was 18. We were discussing some aspect of either a friend’s or relatives marital breakup. My Mom tells me: “Oh you wouldn’t understand, maybe when you’re older….” And I was completely flummoxed, left speechless.
It doesn’t count when it’s your Mom.
Would you feel better if I told you that up until I left home I had never even seen an oral thermometer? Never knew there was such a thing.
Would you feel better if I told you that up until I left home I had never even seen an oral thermometer?
Um, no.
lol
Oh crap, I thought I had deleted that line! Just ignore it, means nothing, has no significance.
Darn, Mooser, and I thought I understood you at last.
You would be a couple steps ahead of me if you did.
This has been one of my favorite exchanges on the site ever.
I agree with Adam.
Also:
I am way more cowardly than Shmuel and Jenny’s poem has helped me imagine a more honest way of being w/ my mother…
Phil,
To some extent or other, we hide behind our parents’ (and their friends’) lack of computer skills. My mum has mastered the basics, but I don’t really have to worry about her coming across the things I write here (which would shock her, I’m sure). Your net presence is infinitely greater than mine, but I’m assuming you feel pretty “safe” in that respect too.
What would Buber say, Shmuel–about your incident?
What would Buber say
Could you explain please, Citizen.
Reminds me of when I was confronted by my father: “I heard that you’re an atheist. Is it true?”. I had always thought that I would have no problems answering that. Until it happened. Maybe because I didn’t want to cause the old man any unnecessary anguish I tried to weasel out of the question by quoting Gibran. “You have your religion and I have mine” but it didn’t work. And since I was very uncomfortable with lying about such a fundamental issue (in my view) I ended up by telling it all not without a last attempt at lame justifications; religions has caused too much misery, wars and conflicts. He wasn’t convinced and resented it, I could always tell. But he’s gone now.
TGIA,
I was raised in two religions – Orthodox Judaism and Zionism. My rejection of the first was impossible to finesse, as it entailed a very obvious change in lifestyle, and it caused my parents a great deal of anguish. Although leaving Israel was a big hint, there was no need to hit them over the head with my anti-Zionism and they were able to preserve at least some of their illusions.
what an awesome blog jenny. there were so many passages worthy of dragging in here for all to see but when i read this from february i knew…
a poem for your lifelong best friend and hero and all-around rockstar mom. you are very brave and very beautiful, you are the future.
Annie, are you trying to infer that anti-Zionists, or even criticisers of Israel are not doing it solely out of a sick need to punish their parents?
Are you trying to say that anti-Zionists or Israel-criticisers actually temporise out of a desire to spare their parents feelings?
Let’s get down to it Annie: Are you putting forth the completely unfathomable idea that those who fault Zionism can still love their parents? And can have conflicted and painful feelings about it?
Well, frankly, such contentions disgust me, but I will leave it to Shwartzman to give us the links to all the clinical research papers from Israeli psychological centers which tell us that criticism of Israel comes from the same place as matricide.
And you have to wear a white ribbon?
Let’s get down to it Annie: Are you putting forth the completely unfathomable idea that those who fault Zionism can still love their parents? And can have conflicted and painful feelings about it?
no, i was putting forth the idea that while it takes some of us lifetimes to find the courage to do something about it (“let them get away with it”) it was only a few short months for jenny to write this incredible poem for her mother whom she dearly loves. she has lots of courage. that’s all i’m saying mooser.
also mooser, i suggest you check out her website if you haven’t done so and read back a few pages for context. it’s one thing being brutally honest w/your friends, the family is sometimes more challenging.
Funny though – every time Iranian President Dr. Ahmadinejad reminds the West that it were they who expeled and murdered the Jews – he is called “a Holocaust denier” by both the Jewish and the western leaders.
“If the Europeans are telling the truth in their claim that they have killed six million Jews in the holocaust during the WW II – which seems they’re right in their claim because they insist on it and arrest and imprison those who oppose it, why the Palestinian nation should pay for the crime? why they come to the very heart of the Islamic world and are committing crimes against the dear Palestine using bombs, rockets, missiles and sanctions? If you have committed the crime, so give a piece of your land somewhere in Europe or America and Canada or Alaska to set up their own state there……”
link to rehmat2.wordpress.com
Somehow, Ahmedinejad was not equivocal at all when he spoke about Armenian holocaust while visiting their capital.
I guess the cited speech is deeply offensive, but it is not a denial. More like “whatever”.
It is actually MOO of the Iranian establishment. They pick a point that can be pretty well justified, but very annoying, and hammer upon it, with no other reason but to provoke USA, Israel and West Europe to unreason. They have their own “moral superiority versus iniquity” game. Hence ironic references to Jewish Holocaust, and rather pointless fuel enrichment program.
Hard to know which are Jenny’s words and which are Phil’s.
The poem is obviously Jenny’s.
Its offensive to me to hear her publicly declare her mother “and its rural salads in your liar dressing”
She entirely missed her mother’s message. “Be proud.”
No food “belongs” to a people. Its ALL borrowed from people before. Its not Israeli, NOR is it Arab.
A more generous approach would be to correct her mother’s lack of appreciation for Arab contribution to our present, in the form of “Thank you Lebanese for …”
Its reactionarily adolescent to rage against one’s parents, RATHER than to appreciate and then positively proceed.
That’s offensive in literary terms. Yuck.
After reading Jenny Grossbard’s lovely poem, I was curious about the article her mom had sent her, so I did a little googling. Didn’t find the “Metro-West Jewish News,” but I found what appears to be the original version of the article in question at:
link to njjewishnews.com
Just in case anyone else is curious…
Was that article covered in a post at Mondoweiss? That Tell-the-children seems familiar! My search skills are abysmal, so I’m not the guy to find it. But I could swear it was.
I don’t recall anything being posted here about the article Ms. Grossbard responded to. You may be thinking of a post by Phil on May 26
( link to mondoweiss.net
)
in which he included excerpts from a (much better) piece by Marjorie Ingalls, parenting columnist for another Jewish publication, the Tablet. The post elicited 343 comments, including a bunch from you, Mooser.
Mooser, you may also be thinking of Seven Jewish Children, a 10-minute play by Caryl Churchill, which involves adults discussing what to tell their children about Israel and Gaza. It has similar lines in it as the ones quoted (or paraphrased?) by Jenny Grossbard, only from a cynical perspective.
Speaking of which, Seven Jewish Children, a 10-minute play by Caryl Churchill, seemingly contributed to the controversial “SensibleJew” launch in Melbourne … link to sensiblejew.wordpress.com
Click on the following link to get an idea apropos … link to sensiblejew.wordpress.com
Interesting article. Parts of it were okay, but then there was the following, which reminded me of He Who I Will Not Name (no, not Voldemort, I mean RW)–
” I would argue to my grave that considering their adversaries and the awful example set by so many other countries in similar circumstances, Israelis have passed that test of power with flying colors. The record is hardly spotless, and many of us worry that unless it finds a way to move beyond the status quo, Israel will be forced to adopt the ugly ethos of many of its neighbors. ”
I can’t decide whether that makes me want to laugh or throw up. I guess it’s a little of both.
One thing that Zionists forget is that Israelis did not pass “that test”. To pass the “test of power” you have to win the war. To win a war, you have to finish it.
Like you cannot claim a success of your moderation in cake eating if you keep eating. “This is really a small cake.” Burp. “See that new slice? Really, really narrow”. Burp. “And this slice is hardly larger”. “Have your read that BMI is a wrong measure of obesity? One has to take into account special circumstances. Look at my muscles”. Another slice….
Jenny should listen to her mother. Jewish anti-Zionists are this generation’s version of the Jews who wanted to return to Egyptian slavery from the desert.
No, the Zionists are like the Egyptians, the anti-Zionists are like Egyptians who think Pharaoh should let the Hebrews go.
This is fun. Now let’s compare various political groups and/or individuals to orcs, hobbits, elves, and humans. RW can be a troll. I want to be an Ent.
Zionists will always see themselves as victims. They will ask people to forget their histories, their tragedies, their grievances, etc.
All the while, worshiping themselves – their suffering above all other things.
Go to hell hophmi.
The world does not function through a Jewish lens.
You can frame anti-Zionism any which way you like. You’ll be talking to yourself and the other cultists. No non-Zionist/rational person is going to give a damn about your Holocaust religion of self-worship.
“Go to hell hophmi.”
I’ll meet you there, Cliff.
“The world does not function through a Jewish lens.”
What’s a Jewish lens?
“No non-Zionist/rational person is going to give a damn about your Holocaust religion of self-worship.”
I know no one gives a damn. That why it’s important for Jews to control their own destiny through the exercise of self-determination.
“What’s a Jewish lens?” Ask Philip Zeiss. I’ll bet its a Gefilte-Fish Eye….Tip the waiters..
Tell us something we don’t know. Zionist Jews will bring down this country to fight wars for that racist, apartheid State founded on the ruins of another people and society. Stolen land, still stealing.
The ‘exercise of self-determination’ is hasbara for stealing land, subjugating the indigenous population, murdering and then lying about the murdering, etc.
As I said, a deluded clown like you still thinks you have the moral high ground. You’re a thief.
Jewish lens = framing everything in life as Jews vs. non-Jews.
Get out of Palestine.
Where are you from, Cliff?
hophmi,
The Bible has a somewhat different take on the lessons of slavery:
Ex. 22:20; 23:9;
Lev. 19:34
Deut. 10:19; 23:8
Indeed. That’s why Israel is a democracy and the most diverse state in the region.
And anyway, according to you, we’re the foreigners, not the Palestinians.
An eye-for-an-eye literalist are we? The point is (to paraphrase the Talmud on this very subject – Bava Metzia 59b) use your experiences as Other to understand and respect someone who is Other to you. That is not what Israel or the Zionist movement have done – from day 1. Anti-Zionists (Jewish and non) have internalised that lesson, as opposed to the repugnant notions of tribal loyalty you seem to have distilled from Jewish tradition.
“Jewish anti-Zionists are this generation’s version of the Jews who wanted to return to Egyptian slavery”
Wrong hophmi..They only want you to return the land you’ve stolen.
Jenny Grossbard, that’s a beautiful poem. Thanks. I’m more than twice your age, but it resonated very deeply.
I met Jenny about a year ago on twitter I was getting attacked by Zionist Jews left ,and right during the Gaza they where putting words into my mouth calling me a selfhating jew traitor etc. What i found odd is That there where more Jews who had the same opinion against the war in gaza, I thought well great i got my crew the DM came flying in saying I really think you are brave,I too am Jewish but I’m afraid I will get the same wrath as you. First of all to call me brave because I am standing up to a bunch of goose stepping Zionist i can only feel sorry for them,because i too thought like them once …On with my point not one of these “liberal”Jews mind you begged me not to sell them out stuck up for me. The only Jew that did was Jenny Grossbard She put herself out there,and defended me calling them out for what they where cyber jew thugs if not for her and others like mondoweiss I would have no faith in Jewish People Jenny keep up the good work you will be always be on the right side of history Jeffrey aka jew4palestine
And that’s where you’re wrong sparky. I stuck up for you too, but 1) I don’t feel its necessary to ostentatiously announce my “Judaism” to the world to be Anti-Zionst 2) you probably assumed I wasn’t “Jewish” because my surname isn’t Ashkenazic 3)never bothered to respond to me when I tried to communicate with you, so I unfollowed you 4) you may need to check your own preconceptions and motivations 5)I could be wrong, and often am, I just calls em as I sees em…
Im really sorry I did that to you I hope you accept my apology .I do recall you now,and I was being attacked all the time Im wiser now when I sus out people. I hope you come back to twitter I need all the help i can get cheers
Fair enough.
‘her mother’s message. “Be proud.”’
Proud of what? What has she done to be proud of?
Beautiful. Thank you for sharing Jenny
@Shmuel – I can imagine it’s incredibly hard.
@Mooser – Wow. Thanks for the laugh.
I’m not entirely sure how Jenny answers the journalist’s claim that anti-Zionists desire that Jews should be ‘powerless’ because they think that as a group that is not too powerful, in some sense a group of outsiders, the Jews did good things. I think that there is some truth in the idea that Western civilisation progressed because this outside-ish group existed within it and could, particularly when partially liberated, subject its presuppositions to a powerful critique. They were in a position to love justice rather than power, a position to which it seems to me that the anti-Zionist Jews, to whose efforts we owe the rational conversation about the ME that is now open to us, are seeking to maintain. Loving power rather than justice is hardly an improvement.