Speaking their minds

RON FRIEDMAN

I want to be proud of my people. I want our children and their children to stand proudly as Jews," said filmmaker and human rights activist Bonnie Klein, before a full room at the Peretz Centre for Secular Jewish Culture.

Roughly 120 people were at the centre on Sunday evening, to take part in a fund-raiser to benefit Outlook magazine, a bimonthly publication based in Vancouver, and to hear Klein speak on the dangers of suppressing dialogue on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Klein told the audience about being booed out of a community meeting and being the subject of personal criticism in letters to the editor in 2002. "I learned the lesson that my opinion was unwelcome in what I thought was my own community of Jews in Vancouver and I was silent for several years ... until now," said Klein.

Klein said she was moved to action after watching a film called Occupation 101, which she saw at an event organized by the Boycott Israel campaign. She said she went despite her "knee-jerk antipathy to the boycott idea." She explained, "I found that many moderate Muslims and Palestinians feel as marginalized, and even terrorized, by extremists or ideologues within their own communities as many moderate Jews."

Klein said a variety of Israeli-Palestinian, Israeli-Arab and Jewish-Muslim dialogue takes place in Israel and around the world. "Does anyone know of any local Jewish-Jewish dialogue groups?" she asked the audience.

"It is important that our diversity be visible to the Jewish community and to the rest of the world," she said. "That is our most common protection against the anti-Semitism that we fear. We need to create spaces in which it will be safe to confront our own and each other's fears, without fear of ridicule or blame, to tell our own stories as they evolve and mature, to know our concerns are valid and intelligent, not naïve, very Jewish."

The discussion and brainstorming session that followed Klein's speech was characterized by a range of opinions and observations, including the need to balance criticism of both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian debate, the suggestion of de-coupling Israel from Judaism, the prevailing dissonance of the younger generations, avenues for intercommunity debate and representation of alternative views in mainstream Jewish organizations.

"I am very interested in opening up the dialogue about Israel, about our relationship with Israel, because that shapes the quality of our Jewish community right here, where so many people feel detached, pushed out, unwelcome in the community, their voices not allowed to be heard," said Rabbi David Mivasair of Congregation Ahavat Olam. "I think that is a great tragedy and a disaster for us right here in Vancouver."

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