rift: Окружённая среда

Кино- и музыкальных звезд, которые последний год активно и публично поддерживают Израиль, довольно легко пересчитать. Если одного комплекта пальцев для этого и не хватит, то два-три человека, объединив ресурсы, решат эту задачу без труда.

Так получилось по многим причинам, мне кажется, что две из них сыграли особенно немаловажную роль. Во-первых, в политическом спектре большинство этих звезд находятся далеко слева. Так далеко, что из центра их не очень хорошо видно. И, соответственно, их политическая референтная группа Израиль не очень любит. Мягко говоря. А идти против своей референтной группы не легко. Во-вторых, экономически они зависят от своей целевой аудитории. Большинство которой относятся к демографическим группам, где процент антисемитов внезапно оказался в разы больше, чем в населении в целом. А антагонизировать зрителей и слушателей, идея не очень хорошая.

Тем большее уважение вызывают те, кто несмотря на всё это, решили вести себя, как порядочные люди. Или просто не смогли вести себя иначе. Вызвав волны ненависти бывших поклонников, разнообразные угрозы и реальный материальный ущерб.

Один из ярких примеров - Регина Спектор. Ее записи в блогах сразу после 7 октября очень эмоциональны, пронзительны и задают правильные вопросы, которые крайне редко можно увидеть в других местах. Например, она написала, что понимает почему палестинцы не демонстрируют против Хамаса в Газе - там за это могут убить. Но не понимает, почему она не слышала ни об одной демонстрации против убийств, изнасилований и похищений людей во всей огромной палестинской диаспоре. Это очень хороший и важный вопрос, ответ на который необходим для планирования того, что должно произойти после войны.

К сожалению, на платформах, где Регина Спектор ведет свои дневники, трудно искать информацию, поэтому я скопировал несколько примеров ниже. Плюс два клипа: ее выступление на мемориальном вечере в нью-йоркском Центральном парке 7 октября этого года и длинное интервью на русском год назад. Оба клипа стоит посмотреть. Интервью длится больше часа, но мне оно показалось очень интересным. Помимо собственно рассказа, у них получился еще и отличный портрет человека, совершенно непретенциозного, непосредственного, без фальши, не старающегося подыгрывать или понравиться.





Записи в блогах:

How did we arrive here? A massacre in Israel, on October 7th, the biggest since the Holocaust, full of unspeakable brutality. Then, instantly, all over the world; celebrations, hate rallies, hate speeches, violence, justification of murders, tortures, rapes, kidnappings. It's ok cause we're "white colonizers" now. Was the lynch mob in Dagestan looking for white people? In colleges are they harassing white students? Somewhere along the way everyone forgot we were indigenous to the Middle East. Scientists, Archeologists, Historians all know we lived there for 3000 years, earlier than any Arab existence by centuries, but our certificate got revoked.

I feel like I'm in a world wide Shiva (for those who don't know it's the Jewish week of ritual mourning when someone very close dies). Except instead of a week, it's open- ended. My appetite and sleep are different. I walk among people, but I'm alone. Separate. Other. This is grief. I see sorrow in the faces of other Jews. In my imagination we all begin to look like those black and white photographs from family albums, books, walls of Holocaust museums, documentaries. A time machine has somehow sucked us back into an era we thought we left behind. We can't seem to wake up from this nightmare we're living in.

Why do you call for a cease fire instead of for Hamas to surrender? While hostages aren't returned, while rockets from Hamas fall, while hate crimes against Jews are up all over the world, while you ignorantly and flippantly use words like "apartheid”, “colonizer", "Zionist", "genocide" and spread lies/hate about the Jewish people? You are aligning with terrorists who pledge to kill every last Jew in the Middle East, the planet, and to destroy all free society. A cease fire so they can regroup, rearm, and massacre again? I can't afford to be as kind and moral as you, I guess. I'll just call for Hamas to surrender and bring the hostages safely home!

So if you're a woman, a gay/trans/queer person, an Arab they consider too progressive, an Atheist, a Christian, a "Westerner"- they would drag your mutilated and murdered body through the streets and celebrate. And as they chant "from the river to the sea" they want to see ALL Jews gone, not just from Israel, but from the face of the earth. And then, one by one, everyone else... Am Yisrael Chai #israel

I see it on a video. This time it's a young lesbian (whom Hamas would rape, then kill) and she is tearing down posters of KIDNAPPED CHILDREN AND CIVILIANS in the name of stopping Colonization. She is white (the Jews on the poster are not). She is on ACTUAL COLONIZED LAND (USA) built after an ACTUAL genocide (of the Native Americans). The fact that she is traumatizing an oppressed and massacred minority somehow invigorates her. She's found her scapegoat. Now she can be absolved of her sins. She can live in a world where "Words are literal violence!", while she ignores and excuses LITERAL violence.

If you've devalued Jewish life so much that mourning murdered Jewish children at a festival, raped women, and the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust has offended you- leave. If you think that this was "a result", "deserved", or some other freakish& heartless idea- you've dehumanized Jewish people living in Israel to a point where you yourself have lost much humanity.

I will not miss you listening to my music or your presence here. We are simply not for each other. If I was there- a Jewish dead civilian, then to you- I'd just be another dead Jew who had it coming. But remember that the people torturing, kidnapping, murdering Jews in Israel today- are Islamic Extremist terrorists. They hate you, too.

I cry everyday now, like it's my job.
This is what you might not yet know about crying. This is what I'm learning.
It is strong to cry. It is healing to cry. It is cleansing to cry. It is a prayer to cry. It is a connection to cry. It is hard to cry. It is loving to cry. It is painful to cry. It is meaningful to cry.

The message is simple: if you are a civilian in Israel, no matter what age or political belief, YOUR slaughter can be legitimate. Your blood is cheap, and while you spill it, we'll even debate if you're allowed to be there in the first place. But WHERE are you supposed to be if not your place of origin 3000 years ago. I am from Moscow, Russia. A few weeks after the massacre a memory came back. In preschool- maybe age 4 or 5, a little boy got mad at me and bit hard into my leg. "Go back to Israel!" he screamed. His parents (for he was just repeating) knew exactly where I had come from.

So where are we Jews supposed to go back to? Europe? When we lived there for hundreds of years we kept getting expelled and massacred culminating in the Holocaust which took 6 million of us. So maybe not there. Well then maybe Iran, Morocco, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Yemen, or Iraq? Just some places we USED to be. Who noticed how we were displaced by the hundreds of thousands from all those lands when the extremists took over? Did you see all the innocent Arabs slaughtered and displaced by the hundreds of thousands too? Yemen? Syria? Where were you?

If you're tired. If your heart is full of grief and sorrow. If you feel alone. If you are afraid. If you are in mourning. If you are angry. If you are confused. If you are lost. If you feel hopeless- take a deep breath into your nose. Fill yourself with air, hold it deep in your diaphragm and lungs and then slowly exhale. Do this over and over and find yourself. You're in there. The you that's outside of time or even this body. I love you and I'm with you and I'm doing it too. There's enough room for peace and love, even while fighting a war. You are bigger than all of this. Shabbat Shalom and Am Yisrael Chai

Like most of us I've been glued to every moment- holding my breath, waiting for the hostages to be returned, for the horror to subside, for the emergency to pass. I spoke to an Israeli journalist who described the two minutes people in Israel keep talking about. The two little minutes in the morning when they wake up and then realize that this is really happening. I know those two minutes so well. She talked about how no one could listen to any music in the first weeks. She asked me- why are all the musicians- all my heroes - either silent or against us? I didn't have the answer, and can't speak for others.

Just over a month since the brutal massacre of October 7th and the kidnapping of the innocent hostages into Gaza. Ever since- many of us watched an energized new era of overt Antisemitism, hate chants, hate speeches, and hate crimes arise. We've witnessed mass uproar about ceasefire (this one was broken by Hamas on October 7th. Like all the previous ceasefires before it) and mass silence about torture, rape, and the return of hostages.

Then I was asked why I keep writing. The truth is I'm not sure. I'm not here to change anyone's mind- I don't think I can. But for whatever reason, I'm compelled to do it. Maybe when I write to you- I'm writing to myself. To let myself know I'm still in here. I'm here. I come from the USSR- a totalitarian oppressive regime built on silencing people. I come from Jewish ancestors who whispered their thoughts, who had to do Bris and Bar/Bat Mitzvah ceremonies in secret. They had no mezuzah on their door. They somehow survived. We must survive too.

There are many fronts to battle on. The front of misinformation, radicalization, antisemitism, hate speech. But also the front of self preservation, self protection and self love. To be physically alive yet experiencing deep fear, anxiety, depression, loneliness and isolation, is a battle too. We CAN fight that. We must rest. Shabbat reminds us- even though it's ancient and existed long before the 24 hour news cycle, social media, and phones- a part of Jewish life always required rest. To be with family and friends, to study, pray, and reflect on the past while hoping for a better future.