Month: May 2023

The Israel Brief- 01-04 May 2023

The Israel Brief – 01 May 2023 – US Speaker of the House in Israel. Pres Herzog warns officials against irresponsible language. Kuwaiti man harasses Israeli children. Noa Kirel at Eurovision.



The Israel Brief – 02 May 2023 – Rockets fired and PIJ leader does after hunger strike. US Speaker addresses Knesset. World Rugby Union upholds discriminatory decision. President Herzog to represent Israel at Coronation.



The Israel Brief – 03 May 2023 – 24 Hours of rockets. EU and Israel to hold summit. Likud have strong words for Ben Gvir. Dee family meet recipients of organ donation.



The Israel Brief – 04 May 2023 – IDF eliminate terrorists who murdered Lucy, Maia and Rina Dee. Terror attack in Huwara. Day of Disruption. Mazel Tov to their Majesties.






While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves.  LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).


LOOK WHO’S TALKING

Nearly the whole country – but who in Israel is listening?

By David E. Kaplan

My physiotherapist expressed while treating my damaged knee:

“You know, this is worse then when I was in Lebanon.”

This was a reference to the mood in the country and not the condition of my knee.  “We were fighting an enemy back  then behind a wall, on top of a roof or above on a hill. Now we are fighting at home with each other – our neighbours, our friends our family. I don’t know how, when or even if, it will end.”

My physio was more optimistic about my knee than Israel. I felt the complete opposite. I knew realistically the best days of my knee were behind but no less realistically believed that the best days of Israel still lay ahead. Resonating in my mind were the profoundly prophetic and poetic words of the South African-born Israeli diplomat and politician Abba Eban:

 “Israel’s future will be longer than its past.”

After 2000 years of exile and persecution, we were not going to let control over our destiny slip away again and by or own hand!

True there “was no resolution yet in sight” as my physio asserted with the same intensity as he hard-pressed the flesh around my fragile knee, but we did agree “at least we are talking”, albeit at times  more like SHOUTING!

And if the country was experiencing a semblance of a “civil war” as some TV commentators and news media correspondents are bandying about, it is of a Jewish variety. Afterall, the barbs are at the tips of tongues not bullets.

Tally on the Warpath. Likud’s Tally Gotliv at a legislative committee meeting at the Knesset on Monday, February 20, 2023 was sanctioned for blaming Israel’s Chief Justice Hayut for a fatal terror attack. (photo credit: YONATAN SINDEL/FLASH90)

VICIOUS VERBIAGE

Nevertheless, the verbal barbs emanating from this coalition are tough to process. Take for example, Likud firebrand Tally Gotliv, who at a recent rally in Netanya in support of her government’s proposed judicial reform, called for the dismissal of Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miar. The AG had simply been doing her job by warning, nay I say ‘counselling’ the Prime Minister that he would be acting illegally if he involved himself directly in his government’s moves to change the country’s judicial system. Why? Simply, because it could be construed as a conflict of interest vis-à-vis his ongoing criminal cases.

Freshman Firebrand. Far-right Knesset Likud freshman Tallly Gotliv has attracted much media attention over her outrageous statements such as accusing the Israeli left of “betraying the State of Israel”  to calling to imprison the former prime minister, Ehud Barak, Israel’s most decorated soldier for “sedition”.

On a rampant charge of absurdity, galloping Gotliv further called for the insane imprisonment  of  former PM Ehud Barak accusing him of “sedition”. Sedition? “He should be in prison,” she  called for. Where does Gotliv come with her crazy notion of calling Israel’s most decorated war veteran who fearlessly faced death on the battlefield and was a former Prime Minister and former IDF Chief of Staff a traitor? It’s one thing being known for fiery rhetoric, it’s quite another accusing your opposition – simply for holding opposing views which is the nature of “opposition” of having “betrayed the State of Israel”. Gotliv had bellowed to her followers at the Netanya rally the following:

“You know what differentiates us from the people on the left? The left has lost it, the left betrayed the State of Israel; the left forgot the most basic values of the people of Israel and a Jewish and democratic state.”

Could her choice of wording be more divisive and dangerous?

Gotliv is a sad barometer of the calibre of this government’s leadership. Her statement was not a rash outburst of an animated politician at a rally. Gotliv displays a pattern of stupidity imbued with toxic values – a calamitous combination. Review what she shockingly expressed in a Twitter post back in February when she accused Supreme Court Chief Justice Esther Hayut of inciting a deadly terrorist attack that claimed the lives of three Israelis:

“I blame the Supreme Court chief justice for the terror attack. I blame her for the chaos in Israel, and for destroying democracy and the rule of law.”

A member of the government blames the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court for murder and terrorism, and you wonder why the people of Israel are literally up-in-arms, brandishing banners to protect their Supreme Court?  

Man on a Mission. Coalition’s chief architect of the government’s planned judicial overhaul, Justice Minister Yariv Levin at a rally in support outside the Knesset on April 27, 2023. (Arie Leib Abrams/Flash90)

Is it any wonder why the protests continue every Saturday night against a government  that has not lost its way but is decidedly heading in the wrong direction. This ‘coalition of chaos’ is careering ingloriously at full speed down a cul-de-sac. It is a political and moral dead end and the people of Israel from all persuasions and parties have risen to revers course before it’s too late. By obstructing certain roads in protests, these obstructions are proving to be a metaphor of trying to block the coalitions attempts at undermining Israel’s precious democracy. It is why the very mention at protests of those names in the coalition driving this chaos from Prime Minister Netanyahu, to Levin, Rothman, Ben Gvir, Smotrich and now Gotliv are met by protestors shouting repeatedly in Hebrew “Busha, Busha, Busha” – “Shame, Shame, Shame”.

This is Conversation. Anti-judicial reform protesters outside Israel’s parliament, the Knesset in Jerusalem are making their voices heard.

THE ROAD AHEAD

Nevertheless there is one marked change in the political landscape. If in the past protesters against judicial reform were criticized for protesting, now supporters of the government too are protesting all across the country – in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Netanya, Beer Sheva and even in my city of Kfar Saba. Irrespective of allegiances and perspectives, a cross-section of citizens are making their voices heard. People are addressing issues that for far too long have been hibernating under the proverbial rug, lazily left for future generations to resolve.

‘Right’ up one’s Street. The right as well have taken to the streets in protest. Seen here are tens of thousands of right-wing Israelis gathered in Jerusalem a mass rally in support of the government’s efforts to drastically overhaul the judiciary
 

No longer.

With people pouring onto the streets in protest, there is a new dawn awakening this generation to forge a way ahead as to what type of Israel it wants.

That crucial conversation about the characteristics and identity of an evolving Israel – raucous as it is – has begun. What’s more, no one can escape it.




While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves.  LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).

A KING FOR OUR TIMES

The Eyes of the world on the coronation of King Charles and Queen Camilla

By Rolene Marks

On May the 6th, the eyes of the world will be trained on Westminster Abbey in London as King Charles is crowned the Most High, Most Mighty and Most Excellent Monarch, our Sovereign Lord, Charles III, now, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of His other Realms and Territories King, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith, and Sovereign of the Most Noble Order of the Garter.  A long title to be sure – and one that comes with a 1000 year old history and a great sense of responsibility, duty and service.

Britain is a constitutional monarchy and the King is the living embodiment of that contract between constitution, people and sovereign. This was on full splendid display at the accession ceremony following the death of her late Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II.

While the King cannot send anyone to the Tower (although I think he has been tempted to send a few errant members of his family to the great fortress) or has any real power, he is the very symbol of the United Kingdom, the consummate diplomat, deploying that soft diplomacy and convening power only royalty can.

For many of us, this will be the first time we will see a Coronation. It has been 70 years since the last one, when a beautiful 26 Queen Elizabeth, resplendent in her robes and crown, bearing the symbols of power, the scepter and orb, was revealed to the world.

The coronation will be a great moment in history and it is only the British Royal Family that officially crown their monarchs by holding a ceremony like this which will not only have the pageantry and splendor that Britain is renowned for but it also has great spiritual significance. The monarch is the head of the Anglican Church and will take the sacred vow to be “defender of the faith”.  Over 2000 invited guests will gather in the medieval abbey, 7000 military personnel including serving British armed personnel called in from their posts as far as Estonia and Iraq, and others from 40 different countries of the Commonwealth will provide a spectacular parade.

Of course many (like me!) will be glued to the television, eagerly awaiting the carriages and crowns, gowns and tiaras, horses and soldiers and the iconic gathering of Royal family members on the Buckingham Palace balcony.

As King Charles is crowned, we wonder who the man beneath the glittering Crown is.

Heavy is the head who wears the crown and the King has been preparing for decades. King Charles has worked and campaigned tirelessly during his life on causes that have been very close to his heart. As Prince of Wales, he recognized that many young people were falling through the cracks and unable to find employment. Following his discharge from his service in the Royal Navy, he took the salary he received as a naval officer and established The Prince’s Trust. The Prince’s Trust offers courses that help young people aged 11-30 to develop essential life skills, get ready for work and access job opportunities. The Prince’s Trust assists them to find work because having a job or running a business can lead to a more stable, fulfilling life. One of the most famous beneficiaries is the actor, Idris Elba. To date, The Prince’s Trust has helped over a million young people.

King Charles has always been passionate about spirituality and the environment and is known to be somewhat of a workaholic. As he takes the vow to be “defender of the faith”, he is on record as saying that he would like to be the defender of faiths and is often seen at events of different religions. The King danced up a storm with Holocaust survivors during Chanukah and counted the late Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks as amongst his close friends.

It is his love of the environment that King Charles is probably the most recognized. Once ridiculed for his fondness for talking to his plants, (he must be doing something right – have you seen the gardens at Highgrove, his estate in Gloucestershire?), the King has followed in the footsteps of his late father, the Duke of Edinburgh; and made saving the environment and being sustainable a priority. Even his Coronation invitation displays his love of all things natural.

The King was years ahead of his time, an early adopter, long before climate was the cause du jour.

Known to be an intellectual, King Charles embraces a broad range of interests but none as loved as his wife and consort, Queen Camilla. Queen Camilla is the love of the King’s life and we are all familiar with the difficult trajectory of their story. This is the juncture when I hope we can let the much-loved late Diana, Princess of Wales rest in peace, as she deserves and wish their Majesties well.

Tabloids have feasted on the foibles on the Royal Family for years and the King and Queen have not been spared (pun very much intended). In recent years, it is the unedifying behaviour of his younger son, Prince Harry and his wife that are the fodder of daily headlines. It is the hope of many that the King and his errant younger son will reconcile in the future.

Many who have met the King and Queen speak of how warm and invested they are in whomever they meet. Queen Camilla who has borne the brunt of some of the most salacious media treatment, has earned the respect and many say even love from Britons as she has kept her head down and focused on the causes close to her heart like domestic violence and the elderly. Her recently launched “The Queen’s Reading Room” has also proven to be a hit. At the end of the day, she is the strong woman behind her husband and keeps him calm and focused.

Some say King Charles will be a “caretaker King” as he prepares his heir, Prince William to be King along with his consort, Catherine. The Princess of Wales is currently the most loved of all the Royal family members. With their three enchanting children, Princes George and Louis and Princess Charlotte, the future of the monarchy is in safe hands. Some of us will be watching Prince Louis to see if the 5-year-old will entertain us as he did during his beloved great-grandmother’s Platinum Jubilee last year, delighting us with his cute expressions.

This weekend, the eyes of the world will focus on the 40th monarch crowned in Westminster Abbey. It will be a moment in time, replete with splendour. The State of Israel will be represented by our President Isaac Herzog and First Lady Michal who will keep with the laws of Shabbat by walking to the Abbey. There they will join Rabbi Mervis, who the King kindly said could stay overnight at his London residence, Clarence House, so that he may observe Shabbat.

This is the kindness of a King who has waited a lifetime for this moment, who has been misunderstood and often mocked but who remains a sovereign devoted to his people, family and role. As we herald in the Carolean Age, we offer our hearty Mazel Tov.

G-d save the King.




While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves.  LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).

GUARDIAN’S POISONED PEN

By his grotesque caricatures of Jews, UK cartoonist signs off as an antisemite

By Adam Levick

A cartoon by The Guardian’s Martin Rowson depicting Richard Sharp, who announced his resignation as BBC chair earlier in the week, was removed by editors on Saturday following widespread complaints of antisemitism. In a statement, The Guardian said of the cartoon depicting Sharp, who is Jewish:

“We understand the concerns that have been raised. This cartoon does not meet our editorial standards, and we have decided to remove it from our website. The Guardian apologises to Mr. Sharp, to the Jewish community and to anyone offended.”

Rowson, a Jeremy Corbyn supporter who has been a cartoonist at The Guardian for decades, also apologised, saying the illustration was a result of “carelessness and thoughtlessness”, and adding:

“Many people are understandably very upset. I genuinely apologise, unconditionally.”

See the cartoon, and a great analysis of it – which managed to include several antisemitic themes, including depicting Sharp with grotesque stereotypical features, themes of money, power, an octopus and a puppeteer – in the tweet thread below by the CST’s Dave Rich, whose recent book on antisemitism we reviewed.

Though you can find all our posts about Rowson’s problematic work relating to Israel and Jews here, we’ll provide a few examples, from the pages of The Guardian and elsewhere, to provide context on the current row.

In a 2008 report released by the Office of the Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism, the US State Department denounced as antisemitic a cartoon by Rowson two years earlier depicting Stars of David being used as a knuckle duster on a bloody fist to both punch a young boy and crush U.S. President George Bush.

In 2011, Rowson demonstrated that his views about Jews and antisemitism are similar to that of the disgraced former London Mayor Ken Livingstone, who was found guilty of antisemitic harassment of Jewish people in the EHRC report on antisemitism in the Labour Party.

In an interview at a socialist publication, Rowson wrote that an “outraged sense of victimhood can be a powerful weapon to silence debate” and that “The Israel lobby is particularly masterful in using this to silence criticism of their brutally oppressive colonialism.” He added that the charge of antisemitism is “the ultimate trump card”, that “no matter how many innocent people the Israeli state kills, any criticism is automatically proof of antisemitism” before adding that “no wonder idiots like Ahmadinejad want to deny the holocaust. They are jealous. They’d love to silence their critics like that.”

In 2013, Rowson accused CAMERA UK (then ‘CiF Watch’) of “browbeating him” into avoiding Israel in his cartoons.

Followers of our site might also recall that this isn’t the first time Rowson depicted a well-known Jew with grotesque, stereotypical features, as you can see in this post in 2017 on his illustration of Henry Kissinger. In our post, we included a side-by-side comparison between Rowson’s depiction of Kissinger with the infamous Nazi antisemitic caricature published by Julius Streicher’s Der Sturmer, titled ‘The Poisonous Mushroom’:

We should be clear that Steve Bell, Rowson’s colleague at The Guardian, is far more problematic, particularly in his use of antisemitism in his cartoons, and his clear contempt for the Jewish community.  However, while it would be tempting to impute to Rowson ignorance about the myths, libels and caricatures about Jews that have been normalised in the West over centuries, an article he wrote in 2019 criticised The NY Times for publishing a cartoon (later removed) that included what he called “common antisemitic tropes of the type notoriously published in cartoon form in the Nazi newspaper Der Stürmer.”

So, it would seem that The Guardian cartoonist has some familiarity with the visual language of antisemitic stereotypes.

Indeed, in his apology for the cartoon about Sharp (the full text of which you can find here), Rowson admits that the cartoon went “horribly wrong”.  He attributed this in part to “the mad rush to cram as much in as possible in the 5 or so hours available to me to produce the artwork by deadline” and that he realises that some of the imagery could be seen as representing “antisemitic blood libels that have recurred poisonously for millennia.”

Guardian caught off Guard. The Guardian deletes and apologises for a Martin Rowson cartoon of BBC Chairman Richard Sharp (above) after being accused of “Shocking” antisemitism

So, how to interpret Rowson’s ‘error’? 

Well, there was something Rich mentioned in his tweet thread that may help explain it.  He wrote, in contextualising antisemitism with other forms of racism, that “you might draw Boris Johnson as a gorilla and nobody would mind…But if you drew a black politician that way, it would be racist.”  The same principle should apply, he added, to depictions of Jews.

It should. But it doesn’t.

Whereas you’d be hard pressed to find a cartoonist working for a mainstream media outlet – or his or her editor – who wouldn’t immediately recognise that kind of depiction of a black politician as racist, the same is in fact not true when it comes to antisemitic imagery.

Nefarious Nib. Award-winning cartoonist Martin Rowson (above) had a recent cartoon in The Guardian removed with apologies for antisemitism.

In other words, the same instinct which motivated Diane Abbott, in her letter in the Observer, to outrageously diminish the significance of antisemitism by likening it to the prejudice faced by “redheads” helps explain why those on the hard left, such as Rowson, fail to see racism against Jews even when it’s staring them in the face – even if, at least on an intellectual level, they understand the history of antisemitic tropes.

This represents an extremely dangerous ideological blind spot which both Rich and David Baddiel have explored at length.

Shades of 1930’s Germany. Note the antisemitic stereotypes in Martin Rowson’s offensive cartoon of a grinning Sharp identified as Jewish by an enlarged nose and carrying a Goldman Sachs office box, stuffed with gold and an octopus, a common antisemitic image found in anti-Jewish images and cartoons, representing the antisemitic canard of Jewish control.

The Guardian‘s decision to remove the cartoon was clearly motivated – in my view –  by the widespread backlash it engendered rather than any outrage over antisemitic imagery.  This explains why, to this day, a recent article legitimising a medieval blood libel by Mohammed el–Kurd still has not been amended to clarify that the outlet rejects his antisemitic libel.

The Guardian, as we’ve demonstrated repeatedly over the years, only worries about “averting accusations of antisemitism”, not antisemitism itself.



About the writer:

Adam Levick lives in Israel and is co-editor of CAMERA UK. He previously worked as a researcher at NGO Monitor and, prior to that, at the Civil Rights Division of the Anti-Defamation League. Adam has published reports on progressive antisemitism for the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. His op-eds have appeared in The Guardian, The Independent, Irish Examiner, Philadelphia Inquirer, The Jewish Chronicle, Jewish Quarterly, The Jerusalem Post, Times of Israel, JNS, The Algemeiner, South African Jewish Affairs and Perspectives (the print magazine of Aish HaTorah UK).




While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves.  LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).

“RUSSIA IS NOT HEALTHY FOR JEWS AND OTHER LIVING THINGS”

With first foreign correspondent since Cold War to be detained for alleged spying being a Jew, is it coincidence or out the Russian playbook?

By Jonathan Feldstein

When I read about the arrest of American Jewish Wall Street Journal Reporter, Evan Gershkovich, in Russia on March 29, my mind went back to the 1980s.

Jewish Journalist Detained. The Biden administration has formally determined that Jewish Wall Street Journal journalist Evan Gershkovich who was arrested in Russia on espionage charges, has been ‘wrongfully detained.’ (The Wall Street Journal via AP)

In July 1985, I went to visit Abe Stolar.  Abe was well into his 70s. We bonded immediately, two American Jews, me listening to his stories intently, in his native Chicago accent.  The strange thing is that I was not visiting Abe and his wife, Gita, in Chicago, the place of his birth, or in New Jersey, the place of my birth.  I was visiting Abe in Moscow, the Soviet Union.

Stepping into the Clutches of Stalin. American Abe Stolar in Chicago prior to his departure in 1931 for the USSR.

Like many Russian Jews, Abe’s parents fled Czarist Russia. The arrives in Chicago, a year before Abe was born. Then in 1931, with the US still suffering from the Depression, Abe’s parents, imbued with a degree of communist revolutionary fervor, decided to return to the USSR. Within five years, Abe’s father was taken from their home by Stalin’s police (NKVD) during the infamous purges in which many Jews became victims. Abe’s father was never seen again. Despite being an American citizen, Abe saw no way back to Chicago.  So much for the Beatles’ 1968 sympathetic portrayal of the USSR in their song  “BACK IN THE USSR”.

The True ‘Cover Story’. While the Beatles 1968 album cover with title ‘Back in the USSR’ ‘ presented a sympathetic portrayal of the USSR, Abe’s family experience of ‘back in the USSR’ was very different. Within five years, Abe’s father was taken from their home by Stalin’s police during the infamous purges and was never seen again.

In 1975, Abe, Gita and their son applied for exit visas. They received permission to leave, selling all their belongings.  On July 19, the permission was revoked. The Stolars were detained just before boarding the plane, forced to return to their empty Moscow apartment, hopeless.

I met Abe a decade later, almost to the day.  He was clearly frustrated and desperate to leave, but he was jovial, friendly, and welcoming. Two years later, I went back to Moscow and visited Abe again. He was more hopeful as he saw signs that things in the USSR were changing, but he was still an American citizen forcefully detained in Moscow.

As soon as I heard of Evan Gershkovich’s arrest, I thought of Abe. Evan was arrested on charges of espionage by Russia’s Federal Security Bureau (FSB), the successor to the KGB, and Stalin’s NKVD. It’s the first time Russia has accused a foreign journalist of espionage since the Cold War.

Singing to Sara. 75-year-old Abe Stolar singing “If I had a Talking Picture of You” from the 1929 Fox film “Sunny Side Up” to his granddaughter Sara in their Moscow apartment in September, 1986.

There are many parallels between Abe Stolar and Evan Gershkovich. Both are American Jews, both detained in Russia, both children of Russian-born Jews who emigrated to the US, and both went back to Russia as young men, albeit Evan went of his own accord in a professional capacity. He probably didn’t know about Abe Stolar, and that there was a precedent for Russia detaining American-born Jews. 

Shortly after Evan’s arrest, Jews around the world were asked to set an extra seat for him symbolically at their Passover Seder table. It’s interesting that leaving seats empty at the Seder table was something done in the height of the movement to free Jews of the Soviet Union, the time when Abe Stolar first tried to leave and, when Gershkovich’s parents actually left the USSR.

Setting empty seats at a Seder table is meaningful because Passover is the holiday during which we celebrate our freedom. Jews being detained, arrested, imprisoned as Jews (on trumped up charges) is evocative of the enslavement of Jews in Egypt. This creates awareness, and is meaningful especially when the person for whom that seat is set is a Jew being forcefully detained.  It builds solidarity, but is unlikely to do anything on its own to effect a change in Russian policies, or free someone who has been arrested.  

It’s clear that Russia is using Evan to retaliate or as leverage against the U.S, or both. Evan’s arrest will intimidate other western journalists still reporting in Russia, making a black hole of already limited information coming out of Russia even deeper and darker.  Perhaps Evan was not targeted as a Jew, but it’s now no longer unusual for Jews in Russia to be in the Kremlin’s crosshairs.

Back in the USA. Abe Stolar singing the National Anthem at Wrigley Field prior to a Cubs game is flanked by wife Gita and Senator Paul Simon who had been Abe’s principal advocate on Capitol Hill.

Abe Stolar’s case became very personal to me.  Especially after my adopted Soviet Jewish family was permitted to leave in 1987, I stepped up my activism on his behalf, one of many doing so.  When I read about Evan Gershkovich, something additional and personal struck and engaged me. Although some years after I graduated, Evan also graduated from Princeton High School, in the suburban New Jersey community in which I grew up and where my Soviet Jewry activities began.

Not that I am a journalist as Evan is, but in my advocacy to free Jews from Russia, I began writing articles as one of my forms of advocacy, including in the Princeton High School student newspaper. People commented on my being a Jewish student at a particularly WASPy school, in a particularly wealthy community, writing about the imperative of freeing Jews from Russia. For most, it was the first exposure any of my fellow students knew about the antisemitic treachery of Soviet policies.

Long Journey Home. On the left, Abe Stolar in his Moscow apartment in September of 1986. On the right, Abe Stolar at a hotel in Los Angeles in the summer of 1989.

Today, the imperative to do so has come full circle. Espionage was one of the trumped-up charges the Soviets would use against Jews in the past.  It seems that it’s a play in Russia’s playbook as well under Putin, a former KGB agent.

As much as things have changed in the past decades, it’s astounding to see how much things have stayed the same.  The pin and bumper sticker I still have from my Soviet Jewry activism days, “Russia is Not Healthy for Jews and Other Living Things”, are more than just nostalgic collectors’ items, but still a sad truth.

Raising Awareness. Pin sticker in support of Abe Stolar, an American Jew detained in the USSR for 58 years.

THE RIGHT ‘CALL’

The Soviets then, and Russia today, need motivation to change. Optics matter. In the 1980s, I initiated protests at the Russian Embassy in Washington, participated in other massive protests, and called Soviet embassies all over the world to make my protest heard in their offices, to frustrate and embarrass them, and make it no longer worthwhile to use Jews or others as pawns.   The Russian Embassy can be reached at (202) 298-5700. Give them a call.


See America First: the Abe Stolar Story



About the writer:

Jonathan Feldstein ­­­­- President of the US based non-profit Genesis123 Foundation whose mission is to build bridges between Jews and Christians – is a freelance writer whose articles appear in The Jerusalem Post, Times of Israel, Townhall, NorthJersey.com, Algemeiner Jornal, The Jewish Press, major Christian websites and more.





While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves.  LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).