Tags: 5 Min; Jumbo Relief
Updates...
#110's section "Characterization" has been updated.
#108's reference to an essay by Rabbi Nussbaum has been updated with a link to her full essay.
It’s Thursday night. The street scene is hopping. A pizza place nearby:
Mail
Mo Hussain
i love that essay you recommended recently (mo...something?). i feel/think almost exactly the same as him. i just want to hug all of these kids [college demonstrators] and help dissipate their anger and redirect some of their energy toward more productive outlets for changemaking... : /
Matzah
You seriously like shmurah matza...........?
The round, slightly burnt stuff.... yes!
Hatred
Ballet Ireland
This exchange highlights some of Mo Husseini’s 50 Completely True Things. Count how many…
(Source this section: Culture Vulture, Israel)
Ballet Ireland recently pulled a work choreographed by Ohad Naharin from their Bold Moves program, and the writer, choreographer and performer Ori Lenkinski was recently ejected from the Bergen Fringe, part of the Baltic Nordic Fringe Network. This was the email received from the Fringe organizers:
To which Ori responded:
Dearest Maja,
It is strange to call you Dearest seeing as we’ve never met. You know very little about me and I little about you. Our lives converged for a moment thanks to our shared passion for the arts, which is a beautiful thing.
I was deeply touched by your enthusiasm about my work and I understand that this decision was not yours alone rather that of the organization you work for. Therefore, the following is not directed at you alone. Furthermore, I ask that you send this to your board of directors, the individuals who unanimously decided to withdraw my invitation.
As I said before, you know little about me, where I come from and where I live. As a matter of fact, you cannot confirm or deny if I am A. an artist of Palestinian descent, B. someone who lost members of their immediate family in the October 7 atrocities, which you forgot to mention in your email; or C. a person who is no longer residing in Israel.
I imagine any one of these scenarios would have shifted your perspective on me.
None of them are true.
I am a proud Israeli citizen, a proud Canadian, a proud Jew, an artist, a journalist, a mother, and someone who has been traumatized and deeply impacted by the past six months in ways you cannot imagine. I will not add here the various political beliefs that I hold or the actions I have taken to actualize those beliefs – because I shouldn’t have to. I live here, in this reality, with all it entails for my family and my neighbors and friends. You do not. The board of the festival does not.
I am a person who holds the belief that the arts are about creation, about affording spaces in which we can connect, communicate, heal and be together regardless of our religion, background, nationality, sexuality and so on and so forth. I have experienced these connections all around this planet and they are magical. They are the reason I continue to work in this field.
The piece I was invited to present, Birth Preparation Course, is about universality, about what unifies us as human beings so it is doubly disturbing that you have chosen to remove it from your program solely because of “where I live”. Is it really about where I live, Tel Aviv to be specific, or is it my citizenship? Perhaps my religion? If so, I recommend you put an appendix in your next open call specifying that Israeli and Jewish artists need not apply. Perhaps there are other demographics you find offensive? Applying takes time and effort and the least you can do is to save those undesired individuals the time it takes to fill out your forms.
And speaking of time and effort, your festival requires the artists and their benefactors to invest in the platform. Without their contribution, there is no festival. You offer the least monetary support of any festival I’ve been invited to, meaning you expect the artists to give the most; flights, accommodation, internal transport, technical fees and per diem. That is a heavy burden for even the most luxuriously funded artists.
It was difficult to read your letter without words like antisemitism, prejudice and discrimination bubbling up. Given that you clearly don’t see this, I prefer not to contribute my hard-earned money to your festival.
By choosing to revoke my invitation, which your festival has offered for two consecutive years, you silence one voice. You remove just me from your platform. I would happily incur this loss if I believed it helped a single soul anywhere. This type of “taking action” is destructive and harmful to the wrong people and bears no weight for those you claim to be standing with. How does canceling and banning progressive Jewish artists help Palestinians? How can adding more pain to the world help alleviate suffering?
Had you written that you feared for my safety, that would be one thing. Had you written that you worry that my presence in the festival will negatively impact the ticket sales of other performances and cannot take the risk, I could live with it. But that isn’t what you wrote. You wrote that you have revoked your invitation because of where I live.
You wrote that you have debated punishing individual artists yet haven’t made a clear decision on the matter.
I believe you have.
I wish you the best with the festival. I hope this exchange will clarify some things for you and your organization. It has certainly clarified things for me.
Ori
“The opposite of war isn’t peace, it’s creation.” -Jonathan Larson, Rent
Postmark: Palestinian Social Media
Palestinians Outraged as Egyptian Firm 'Makes Millions' Getting Refugees Out of Gaza
Reports that Palestinians are being charged at least $5,000 to flee Gaza has led to accusations of Egypt profiting from their plight. 'Has the Rafah border crossing turned into the second Suez Canal?' asks one Gazan.
Given that one of the five wars in the region, the Red Sea, has both increased shipping costs worldwide (an inflationary pressure) and starved the Egypt of Suez Canal transit revenue, maybe Egypt needs the revenue source. Are Gazans the most exploited people?
West Bank
Mahmoud Elhabash, advisor to the PA chairman in an interview with the Al-Arabiya network:
Hamas gave Israel all the justifications for it to go to war against Gaza.
Hamas is also responsible for what happened and what will happen in Rafah.
Hamas wants to stay in power more than it wants to release prisoners.
The innocent abductees in the Gaza Strip [Gazan residents of the Gaza Strip] are paying the price for Hamas's adventures.
How does Hamas say it is ready militarily. [For Israel to come into Gaza] We are a defenseless people.
Gaza
After closing for a few days due to rocket attacks by Hamas (which killed 4 and injured more), the Kerem Shalom border crossing between Israel and Gaza reopened to humanitarian aid. The short range rocket attacks were intended to block aid from entering Gaza.
Relief Area
Alef
Bet: BREAKING: Hamas Offers To Release Zero Hostages In Exchange For All Jews Being Wiped From The Face Of The Earth
Bet
Gimmel: JewTube
It's true. jewtube.com
Dalet
Hey
Vav: A statistician
decided to answer the question "Why is the media focused on Gaza and not any other war", these are my results:
Zayin
Israeli K-Pop.... I didn't know this was a thing...
The lyrics--nothing elevated, but interesting plays on words and spelling.
No Raf analysis. It’s all such a mess. Human messiness plus vision-free leadership isn’t fun. A Haaretz editorial commented on the weapons delivery hold by the U.S.:
Withheld aid is just the latest example of what has become increasingly true of Biden's larger policy toward the Israel-Gaza war: well-intentioned, but alienating for all parties involved.
It also speaks to what Thomas Friedman has observed related to leaders who are beholden to a political process: They can’t make principled decisions.
The wars, all five, grind on.
At least it is nearly shabbat.
Stay well,
Raf
(Thank you A.K., C.A., M.T.)