{"id":43857,"date":"2024-03-22T01:37:42","date_gmt":"2024-03-22T08:37:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=43857"},"modified":"2024-03-20T15:38:55","modified_gmt":"2024-03-20T22:38:55","slug":"pride-despite-facing-hatred","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2024\/03\/22\/pride-despite-facing-hatred\/","title":{"rendered":"Pride despite facing hatred"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ben Freeman\u2008(photo by Pat Johnson)<\/em><\/p>\n

A couple of dozen loud and aggressive protesters accosted people arriving to an event at Hillel House at the University of British Columbia March 13. One masked woman raced up and screamed into the faces of those arriving. Another shoved her phone, presumably filming, into the faces of those trying to enter. Marchers, carrying communist banners and flags, screamed \u201cYou are on the wrong side of history!\u201d<\/p>\n

Inside, a packed audience listened to gay, Jewish, Scottish writer and activist Ben Freeman contextualize the state of world Jewry since Oct. 7. The author of Jewish Pride: Rebuilding a People and Reclaiming our Story: The Pursuit of Jewish Pride<\/i>, in conversation with Vancouver media personality Shane Foxman, spoke while, throughout the entire presentation, the dull roar of protesters screaming provided background.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to understand very, very clearly that we have done nothing to deserve that rabble outside,\u201d Freeman said. \u201cIt is not our fault. This is their problem and not ours. Jew-hatred is a non-Jewish problem. We need our non-Jewish friends and allies to set up on the task of dismantling it. We have other work to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jews, of course, fight antisemitism, he said, but it is up to non-Jews to defeat it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis [protest] is not a commentary on Israel or Zionism,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is an expression of Jew-hatred. We need to understand that.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is not only Jew-haters who try to separate diaspora Jews from Israel, said Freeman. Many Jews fall into the trap as well. The accusation of dual loyalty is a tool to dissuade Jews from expressing their natural connection to the land of Israel, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe canard of dual loyalty has led some Jews to say, \u2018No, no, no, no, I\u2019m not connected to Israel. I\u2019m an American or I\u2019m British or I\u2019m Canadian\u2019 or whatever the case may be,\u201d Freeman said. \u201cThe reality is we are the diaspora. That word gives us a really incredible clue to the aspects of our identity. If we are in the diaspora, Israel is our home. You can be Canadian and Jewish, you don\u2019t need to choose. That is what the non-Jewish world tries to make us do. They try to make us choose. Are you Canadian or are you Jewish? That\u2019s the message that we get, you have to choose. But you don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

He recounted a conversation with his dermatologist, a Briton of Pakistani descent, who said he was \u201cgoing home\u201d to Pakistan on vacation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI said, oh, wonderful, were you born there? And he said, no, I was born here,\u201d recalled Freeman. \u201cAnd I thought, yes! You get it. And he\u2019s allowed [to visit what he calls home], but somehow we are told we are not allowed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Freeman argued succinctly that it\u2019s time Jews stopped fearing accusations of divided loyalties.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do have dual loyalty,\u201d he said. \u201cSuck it.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to refusing to succumb to false accusations, Freeman argued that Jews need to set boundaries on personal and professional relationships.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAfter Oct. 7, I spoke to Jewish friends who were in relationships with non-Jewish people and they said, oh, it\u2019s hard, because my partner isn\u2019t sure how they feel about Israel,\u201d Freeman said. \u201cMy jaw kind of hit the floor. We have to have bottom lines. We have to have boundaries. There should be conversations we are willing to have and conversations we refuse to have. Each of us will make those ourselves but recognizing that Israel has a right to exist, Israel has a right to defend itself, that should be a bottom line. And I think I would encourage all Jews, whether it\u2019s in romantic relationships, whether it\u2019s in friendships, to be able to prioritize yourself, to be able to centre yourself and create those boundaries. We are not accepting half-assed empathy or friendship.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Probably all Jews have had difficult conversations with friends and others in recent months, he said, and Freeman urges a little more resistance.<\/p>\n

\u201cI say to my friends in those situations \u2013 it\u2019s a little bit arsey, to be honest, but I am so done with being a nice Jew \u2013 I say to them, let\u2019s be really clear before we have a conversation about Israel: I know more about this than you do, so don\u2019t come for me. Have some respect. Not only is this my work, but I\u2019m a Jew. That should be respected. And then, I care more about this. My friends are people in the world who might see a headline, they might see a tweet by those bozos outside, and they get enraged and inflamed. They can\u2019t point out which river or which sea. We care deeply, we think about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"photo<\/a>
As author Ben Freeman\u2008spoke at Hillel House at the University of British Columbia, the dull roar of protesters provided background. (photo by Pat Johnson)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ignorance should be challenged and invitations to learn extended, he said. \u201cBut there will be those who are malicious,\u201d he added. \u201cThere will be those who think that we are bad, evil Zionists, we\u2019re colonizers, we\u2019re white oppressors and we are murdering the Indigenous people, we are committing genocide. There are people who believe those things and, if they do, those people are not interested in a conversation, so we block them\u2026. They\u2019re not worth our time. They\u2019re not worth our energy. We\u2019re not dealing with those people.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

He admits, though, this can be easier said than done. All the hatred can get into one\u2019s psyche.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m the author of books about Jewish pride. I\u2019m very proud to be Jewish. I love Israel,\u201d said Freeman. \u201cAnd there have been flickers of weakness in the past five months, when I have been weighed down by what is happening in the diaspora, what happened in Israel and what is said to me online and you do think, Are<\/i> we the bad guys? What is happening? No. We are not. We have a right to be in that land. We have a right to defend ourselves. We need to make the world understand crystal clearly that you do not get to murder Jews and get away with it. Jewish blood is not cheap. We will defend ourselves and we have a country to do that. We lost our sovereignty.\u2026 We are not losing it again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tight security ushered attendees out a back door and away from the still-chanting protesters circling the front of the building.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ben Freeman\u2008(photo by Pat Johnson) A couple of dozen loud and aggressive protesters accosted people arriving to an event at Hillel House at the University of British Columbia March 13. One masked woman raced up and screamed into the faces of those arriving. Another shoved her phone, presumably filming, into the faces of those trying […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":43859,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[23068,3076,22729,218,22725,9958,3556,309],"class_list":["post-43857","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","tag-ben-freeman","tag-education","tag-israel-hamas-war","tag-judaism","tag-oct-7","tag-protesters","tag-ubc","tag-university-of-british-columbia"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43857","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43857"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43857\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}