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September 12, 2008
Determining our own future
Federation campaign begins with an appeal for education.
CYNTHIA RAMSAY
Former U.S. president Jimmy Carter has been able to "hijack history" because we in North America have not done the best that we can to teach Jewish and secular history, Dr. Kenneth W. Stein told the audience at the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver's annual campaign launch Sunday night. "We've become a people who gets to 13 and we stop," he admonished, saying that Jewish kids need to keep learning after their bar or bat mitzvah.
Stein is a professor of contemporary Middle Eastern history, political science and Israeli studies, the director of the Middle East research program and the director of the Institute for the Study of Modern Israel (ISMI) at Emory University in Atlanta, Ga. He has written numerous books and publications and was the first director of the Carter Centre (1983-1986).
Before Stein shared his concerns about Carter's most recent book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, the Sept. 7 launch at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts featured the national anthems of Canada and Israel, led by Eve Camerman; a welcome video featuring people who volunteer in the community and who donate to the annual campaign; opening remarks by Federation president Garry Zlotnik; and two special guest speakers.
The first at the podium was Ron Wolfson, who has received support from the Jewish community, in particular Federation and the Jewish Family Service Agency. Accompanied by his Canadian Service Dog, Sasha, Wolfson rode onto the stage in a scooter that he said he had attained with the help of the Jewish community. Wolfson said that he wasn't connected to the community until he got sick – he suffers from diabetes. Originally from Montreal, he also struggled to find an affordable place to live in Vancouver, explaining that he had dealt with some five different agencies when he was looking for housing and JFSA and Federation were the only ones that managed to secure him a residence: "They put me at the top of their priority list," he said.
Wolfson shared some of the other "miracles" that have happened to him in recent years and said there are many other people, like him, who need support: "I'm glad to be reconnected to the Jewish community.... Please help take care of the others, as you've taken care of me. Together we can do great things."
Reinforcing the latter message, which is the Federation's theme this year – "Live Generously, Together We Do Great Things" – another special guest, Michael Novick of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC), gave a presentation on the JDC's efforts to help Jewish refugees of the war in Georgia last month. Novick explained that tens of thousands of Georgians fled the violence, including about 700 Jews. Among its many deeds, the JDC and its partners organized rescue teams to retrieve people who had not managed to escape on their own and provided food, shelter and psychological aid to refugees. He made a plea to campaign donors that, while the conflict in Georgia is no longer in the headlines, there is still much to be done in the region; the Jewish community needs to rebuild and they'll need continuing support from their fellow Jews.
The goal of this year's local campaign is to raise $8 million - even though the economy is slow, said campaign chair Judi Korbin. She explained that it's at such times that vulnerable community members have increased needs and require more help, so there is even more reason to donate. She noted some of the many things that Federation funds, highlighting JFSA, various local educational institutions and summer camp scholarships.
Stein was introduced by Lana Marks Pulver, women's philanthropy chair of the annual campaign, and thanked by Karen James, the campaign vice-chair, community division. In her remarks, Pulver reiterated the evening's message – "If we don't have each other, then who do we have?" – which was picked up by Stein.
One of the reasons we've remained successful as Jews and have survived, said Stein, is because we've learned to reach out to one another and to stick together in times of crisis. But, he said, unlike throughout most of our history, Jews today have power: "We have enormous power in North America. We have enormous power in Israel." By "power," Stein explained that he meant we had the means to determine our own future and, if anyone or any country tries to take that away from us, then we need to fight for our rights, to speak out and not to walk away.
It was for this reason that Stein resigned from the Carter Centre in December 2006 – because Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid cut to the core of everything that Stein believed in and who Stein was. Despite Stein's many criticisms of Carter's book, however, Stein maintained that Carter, with whom he worked for 24 years, was not an anti-Semite. He said that Carter has a dislike of Israel that could be interpreted as anti-Semitic, but that he had never witnessed anti-Semitism from Carter. Stein also said that he had found no proof of the oft-heard accusation that Carter published Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid with Arab money and that this is the reason it is filled with anti-Israel sentiment; Carter did not need Arab money to write this book, said Stein.
In his work at the Carter Centre, Stein was present at many of the meetings to which Carter refers in Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid and he said that Carter inaccurately describes many of them. Stein also said that Carter plagiarizes; for example, using maps – but changing their legends – from Dennis Ross' The Missing Peace. In other instances, Carter misquotes United Nations resolutions, said Stein.
Stein's conclusion is that there is "mistake after mistake, intentionally done" to make Israel at fault and to make American Jews at fault for supporting Israel. And, in the interviews and articles that followed the publication of Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, Carter came out with even "more egregious lies" and made "exaggerations far greater than he made in the book," which led to Stein's resignation from the Carter Centre.
As to Carter's motivations, Stein conjectured that Carter "believes that he should be the voice of the Palestinians," that Carter thinks that Israel was wrong to keep any land from the 1967 war and that Carter disagrees with Israel's building of settlements. Carter has no personal affinity for Jewish history or for history at all, said Stein, who added that Carter doesn't want to be bound by historical constraints in reaching out and bridging differences between groups.
Stein said that he is speaking out about Carter's book because he wants to create an historical record of evidence showing that what the former president has said is not all accurate. Stein worries because Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid "has become part of the historiography": it is on school syllabuses and recommended reading lists, he said.
"People can't speak out against Carter because they don't know the narrative," said Stein. We have to know our history as well as we know the Four Questions, he stressed. Reminding the audience of the words to Hatikvah – the Jewish dream "to be a free people in our land," which we have achieved – he concluded: "We've struggled too hard for too long to give it up in apathy."
To read Stein's "My Problem with Jimmy Carter's Book," (Middle East Quarterly, Spring 2007) go to www.meforum.org/article/1633.
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