So the crazy speaker was on Thursday and he was part of a team of Americans that helped bring a large group of Europeans to Israel (called Aliyah Bet). It occured between the late 30s and early 40s and is most famous for having the ship Exodus - whose story was so gallantly portrayed by Paul Neuman in an epic 3 hour tale.
Anyway, the man told us his story, which was quite interesting. He was a character. At first he was a little rough, he used some colorful language, and jokingly yelled at a madricha when her cell phone went off. Then he got worse. He mentioned the name of a town in Poland called Kilce where there was a large porgrom after WW2. The JDS kids got excited because we visited Kilce on our trip, and it was nice to be able to put an image with what he was saying. He got mad. He started talking about how he was doing this for free, and how rude we were, and then we went off on two girls from Weber saying that they were the two supidest girls in the room. Though they were talking, and the JDS kids did make some noise when we realized the town he was talking about, I felt his reaction was totally uncalled for. He should tell us to be quiet, but there is no reason to yell at two specific girls and call them stupid. Anyway thats not even the worst.
The worst was when he started talking about Arabs. He said a few things that upset me such as the fact that in the Koran it tells Muslims to blow themselves up (which is not true), that Muslims have made no contributions to society at all, and that there is no such thing as a modern Muslin. I have no problem with him expressing an opinion. I do have a problem when he makes up facts or when he states an opinion as though it were a fact. And that no one clarified. We had no other opinions, no contrast.
I realize that the attacks that Israel is facing are from Islamic extremists, but they are extremists. I have met some moderate Muslims who love Jews (such as my English teacher). The speaker made no distinciton. Many kids felt that though he was pretty racist it was good to hear him because it showed us just what Israeli society is like. I suppose that is true, but we should also get a more moderate opinion, or an Arab opinion, because Israel is not just made up of racist Jews. Or maybe it is and I just have too much faith in this country and its inhabitants.
other than that I had a very relaxing weekend in Tel Aviv.
Molly
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2 comments:
Good for you, Molly, for recognizing him as a nut and thanks, Ezra, for your comment. I'm sure there are many more people in Israel with more sane views.
Dad
Hey Molly, was his name Murray Greenfield? That's the guy we heard around this time of the trip who I think had a similar story. If so, I had a very different experience from you. Tell me and I'll go into more detail.
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