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In the words of UPZ's official educational campaign, this day is bittersweet for me. For many reasons.
First of all, I'm sitting in College Library, procrastinating on my research paper on how Shabtai Tzvi's main theologians like Nathan of Gaza reinterpreted Lurianic Kabbalah in order to justify his conversion to Islam. It's a really fascinating topic and I thoroughly enjoyed doing the research for it, but writing it is getting fairly tedious and I plan on pulling an all-nighter which is not so money.
I'm also a little nervous for Hillel's Israel@60 celebration at Library Mall tomorrow. Originally, Kavanah: A Progressive Jewish Voice, my rockin' political student group, was planning on setting up a table to promote the "bittersweetness" of the day by handing out pamphlets on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, the problem with settlements, information on peace organizations and the peace process in Israel, and bittersweet chocolates. That's all still happening, but now there's an added complication. Madison-Rafah, my favorite anti-Israel buddies, who I've blogged about before, are going to be protesting the event and it's really pissing me off. They just have such chutzpah, they're so inconsistent in their views, and they're just trying to be confrontational. Although they say on their site that it's going to be "educational rather than confrontational," I don't see how it could be anything other. They're going to a student event (by the way they are all adults) so that they can picket, chant, and disrupt the celebration. What are they trying to accomplish? If they were protesting Israel's policies or its right to exist, then they could go somewhere where they would actually be productive, like the Israeli consulate. If they didn't want any pro-Israel celebrations, then they would have protested the Jewish community's Israel@60 celebration the other day. Maybe they're just lazy.
Either way, they're coming and they are handing out flyers that are just ridiculous. One of them asks if a normal person would celebrate racial segregation in the U.S., South African apartheid, or the decimation and conquest of Native Americans, and the other is a list of all the Palestinian villages that were destroyed in Al-Nakba. Whatever. They can back any statistics they want even if they are skewed and deceptive, in fact, I think the plight of the Palestinians should absolutely be recognized on Yom Ha'atzmaut, I just don't see why they have to be such bullies about it. Have your own event. At least get students to protest this event. I think they just need their mommies.
This constituency in Madison really upsets me. They have a voice but they have no feet. They'll protest anything and march anywhere but when it comes to education and political advocacy, they do nothing. And knowing Hillel and the "I love Israel" crowd, it's going to be ugly. Only Kavanah can save this celebration and I hate this burden. Without Kavanah there would just be yelling. But the fact that we have a table and we're passing out critical information totally undermines Madison-Rafah's stance. They're coming in thinking that Hillel is blind to Israel's problems, but our presence proves them wrong. Therefore, since they can't argue that Hillel is painting a biased picture of Israel, their only argument that would differ from us is that Israel has no right to exist or that all Palestinians should have the right to return to Israel, and I think that most normal people see that as outrageous and uncompromisingly extremist.
On a different note, earlier tonight I went to an amazing lecture by Rabbi Brad Hirschfield, an Orthodox rabbi, president of CLAL, the National Jewish Center For Learning and Leadership, and a leading figure in interfaith dialogue who is promoting his book, You Don't Have To Be Wrong For Me To Be Right, about avoiding fanaticism. He's a great speaker with a ton of charisma, and he also has a really interesting story. When he became religious he did it through a yeshiva that promoted right wing politics as part of its theology. He didn't specify which one but I can assume it was Aish or Ohr Sameach. So he decided to move to Hebron to help support the fanatic settlers there - the worst of the worst. But after people from his community murdered two Palestinian students at the Islamic University of Hebron (in retaliation to people who had been killed in his own community) he began to question his choices and it eventually led him to move back to America and work in religious dialogue. It was a very powerful lecture and part of the LISAR conference. Unfortunately I was one of three students there. It's a shame that they scheduled this conference for the worst week of the semester. I shouldn't have even been there. I shouldn't even be writing this post right now, I still have nine pages left on this paper. Damn you, procrastination/distraction.
First of all, I'm sitting in College Library, procrastinating on my research paper on how Shabtai Tzvi's main theologians like Nathan of Gaza reinterpreted Lurianic Kabbalah in order to justify his conversion to Islam. It's a really fascinating topic and I thoroughly enjoyed doing the research for it, but writing it is getting fairly tedious and I plan on pulling an all-nighter which is not so money.
I'm also a little nervous for Hillel's Israel@60 celebration at Library Mall tomorrow. Originally, Kavanah: A Progressive Jewish Voice, my rockin' political student group, was planning on setting up a table to promote the "bittersweetness" of the day by handing out pamphlets on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, the problem with settlements, information on peace organizations and the peace process in Israel, and bittersweet chocolates. That's all still happening, but now there's an added complication. Madison-Rafah, my favorite anti-Israel buddies, who I've blogged about before, are going to be protesting the event and it's really pissing me off. They just have such chutzpah, they're so inconsistent in their views, and they're just trying to be confrontational. Although they say on their site that it's going to be "educational rather than confrontational," I don't see how it could be anything other. They're going to a student event (by the way they are all adults) so that they can picket, chant, and disrupt the celebration. What are they trying to accomplish? If they were protesting Israel's policies or its right to exist, then they could go somewhere where they would actually be productive, like the Israeli consulate. If they didn't want any pro-Israel celebrations, then they would have protested the Jewish community's Israel@60 celebration the other day. Maybe they're just lazy.
Either way, they're coming and they are handing out flyers that are just ridiculous. One of them asks if a normal person would celebrate racial segregation in the U.S., South African apartheid, or the decimation and conquest of Native Americans, and the other is a list of all the Palestinian villages that were destroyed in Al-Nakba. Whatever. They can back any statistics they want even if they are skewed and deceptive, in fact, I think the plight of the Palestinians should absolutely be recognized on Yom Ha'atzmaut, I just don't see why they have to be such bullies about it. Have your own event. At least get students to protest this event. I think they just need their mommies.
This constituency in Madison really upsets me. They have a voice but they have no feet. They'll protest anything and march anywhere but when it comes to education and political advocacy, they do nothing. And knowing Hillel and the "I love Israel" crowd, it's going to be ugly. Only Kavanah can save this celebration and I hate this burden. Without Kavanah there would just be yelling. But the fact that we have a table and we're passing out critical information totally undermines Madison-Rafah's stance. They're coming in thinking that Hillel is blind to Israel's problems, but our presence proves them wrong. Therefore, since they can't argue that Hillel is painting a biased picture of Israel, their only argument that would differ from us is that Israel has no right to exist or that all Palestinians should have the right to return to Israel, and I think that most normal people see that as outrageous and uncompromisingly extremist.
On a different note, earlier tonight I went to an amazing lecture by Rabbi Brad Hirschfield, an Orthodox rabbi, president of CLAL, the National Jewish Center For Learning and Leadership, and a leading figure in interfaith dialogue who is promoting his book, You Don't Have To Be Wrong For Me To Be Right, about avoiding fanaticism. He's a great speaker with a ton of charisma, and he also has a really interesting story. When he became religious he did it through a yeshiva that promoted right wing politics as part of its theology. He didn't specify which one but I can assume it was Aish or Ohr Sameach. So he decided to move to Hebron to help support the fanatic settlers there - the worst of the worst. But after people from his community murdered two Palestinian students at the Islamic University of Hebron (in retaliation to people who had been killed in his own community) he began to question his choices and it eventually led him to move back to America and work in religious dialogue. It was a very powerful lecture and part of the LISAR conference. Unfortunately I was one of three students there. It's a shame that they scheduled this conference for the worst week of the semester. I shouldn't have even been there. I shouldn't even be writing this post right now, I still have nine pages left on this paper. Damn you, procrastination/distraction.
