jewscout
Religious Zionist
With Rachel's Aliyah, the uncertainty of the future of Israeli politics, the unrest in Gaza leading to Palestinian elections which shows the possibility of a Hamas victory, and the calls by the president of Iran for the destruction of Israel's existance and his oh so kind words dealing with the Holocaust, the new Spielberg film "Munich", dealing w/ the murders of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympic Games and the Mossad agents sent to hunt down the terrorists who did this, comes out in theaters around the country.
Spielberg has been known for alot of wonderful work educating people about the Holocaust, however he has recieved criticism from many in the Jewish community regarding this new film. One of these critics, is Rabbi Creditor of Temple Beth El, who gave an impassioned speech this past Shabbat that i felt was worth sharing with all jews and those who support the right of Israel to defend herself and her right to exist.
Munich is a name, is a place, which resonates in Jewish consciousness before and separately from the fall of 1972. Jews first came to that city in the early 1200's and lived through cycles of expulsions, pogroms, readmittance and renewed persecutions that continued in the 1800's. Jews in Munich never knew extended peace and quiet; certainly not security. The community grew in the 19th and 20th centuries until its destruction by the Nazis in the Holocaust. The first concentration camp, Dachau, was opened just outside the city. For reasons that I will never understand, Jews kept coming back to Munich, including the 1972 Olympics. Surely, they must have thought, we all thought, that Jews wouldn't be murdered any more in the city of Munich, in the country of Germany. How wrong that thought was.
I remember that time explicitly and vividly. Ruby and I were married in June 1972 and those High Holy Days would be the first time that I officiated for an adult congregation, having previously led services for teenagers. I was both looking forward to and terrified of that opportunity. I led services, davened, blew shofar and read Torah. The murder of the Israeli athletes at Munich paralyzed me. I was left speechless. Fortunately the chazzan, a much older and wonderful gentleman, born in Europe, spoke before Yizkor. I can't remember what he said.
Wiser because of years, and more experienced, especially by living in Israel for nearly two and a half years of my life, having studied and immersed myself in Zionism, having watched Spielberg's movie "Munich" last night, I can simply say, it's not one of his best. It is fundamentally flawed. It has lines that beg for context and his simplistic treatment allows people, Jews and gentiles, to deduce ideas and thoughts that are erroneous. It is influenced by a pronounced anti-Zionist personality, Tony Kushner. The writers never consulted the living participants or the surviving families. The characters are caricatures. It is disappointing, upsetting, disgusting, much too long, and not worth the price of admission. If I didn't need to make this sermon, I wouldn't have given him my $8.50. What can we say? What should we say?
1. What happened at Munich, 1972 was murder. Murderers are not heroes. Murderers should be punished. Yet the Games went on and the surviving murderers were ultimately set free. The world moved on. Jewish blood watered the German earth, again. This movie is very misleading. The struggle between Arabs and Israelis or better put, between Moslems and Jews didn't begin in Munich. This wasn't a tit for tat scenario. The struggle began in a virtually empty Turkish province, its forests denuded, its water infested with malaria-infested mosquitoes, absentee landowners, and a very small indigenous Arab population along with a small aged Jewish community, mostly in Jerusalem and Tzfat. To this ignored and devastated piece of real estate, the only people to proclaim sovereignty in its area, returned - key and operative word - returned Jews who had learned a difficult and most painful lesson long before the Holocaust - the world, at least the European world, was not hospitable to Jews. Legally obtaining land, purchasing it for cold, hard cash, these Jews, the BILU and other early Zionists, renewed - again a key and operative word - renewed Jewish settlement on the land, where when you dig, you find Jews, Jewish things, and Jewish names. Originally, the Jews were welcomed home - another key word, by the Turks and Arabs. This was not to last. From then on Jewish existence would be bought by blood. Books are sanitized records that don't show you the blood and guts by which the Jewish people reclaimed, resettled and repopulated their - our homeland, all the while attempting to live in peaceful coexistence with the growing Arab population. Ultimately, autonomous Jewish existence, on whatever tiny and inconspicuous area, was, and to some Moslems/Arabs, remains an anathema. That must be extinguished and expunged. He should have named the movie, The Munich Murders, for Munich was just one point in a continuing never-ceasing-saga of the murder of Jews, of Israelis. A truism from the movie - an Israeli is never a civilian. As long as they have served in the army, when they are out of uniform, they are still fair game to be killed. There is no battlefield where the war ends. One side can be defeated but not vanquished, so the fight continues. That is true. The movie corrupts the historical record.
2. Fighting for your existence is dirty. Therefore Israel and Israelis deserve our highest respect and admiration. That does not translate into justifying everything that Israel or Israelis do. But you and I don't have to lift a finger except maybe to write a check. Our lives are not on any battlefield. Our children dream of computers, Ipods, and not learning how to shoot an M-16, fly and jet fighter, or hand to hand combat, or the really dirty stuff of stopping those who would kill you. The episodes after Munich that the movie tries to portray and does so most badly, were not for revenge as much as they were counter-terrorism, so intercept and interdict those who would perpetrate such actions upon Jews/Israelis in Europe. This is not Gene Autry and Roy Rogers. This is blood and gore. This is killing so you will not be killed. The only rule in all of this is that there are no rules. The old maxim is true, this much: All is fair in love - I don't know about that - and war. This is war! It is still war! How do think they have stopped buses being blown up in Jerusalem? How do think they stopped hotels being blown up on Seder night? How do think they stopped they from taking children hostage and murdering them, as they did in Ma'alot, a village you don't even remember? Not by saying "Pretty please." And not by offering anything and everything. The movie shows the dirtiness, but it doesn't show that Israel has cried "stop" and was answered by the three "no's" of Khartoum, no recognition, no negotiations and no peace. Why didn't he put that in, to show the hopelessness and helplessness of Israel's predicament? Why doesn't he allude to uselessness of the United Nations that since 1948 has done nothing to secure Israel's existence and would it be massacred along with all the other massacres that it has done nothing to prevent or stop? Silence. This movie says nothing. For Tony Kushner the creation of the State of Israel was a mistake. And everything that follows from the mistake is fruit tainted by the "original sin." Thus everything that happens to Israelis/Jews is justified.
Spielberg has been known for alot of wonderful work educating people about the Holocaust, however he has recieved criticism from many in the Jewish community regarding this new film. One of these critics, is Rabbi Creditor of Temple Beth El, who gave an impassioned speech this past Shabbat that i felt was worth sharing with all jews and those who support the right of Israel to defend herself and her right to exist.
Munich
January 6th, 2006
Rabbi Gary S. Creditor
Richmond, Virginia
January 6th, 2006
Rabbi Gary S. Creditor
Richmond, Virginia
I remember that time explicitly and vividly. Ruby and I were married in June 1972 and those High Holy Days would be the first time that I officiated for an adult congregation, having previously led services for teenagers. I was both looking forward to and terrified of that opportunity. I led services, davened, blew shofar and read Torah. The murder of the Israeli athletes at Munich paralyzed me. I was left speechless. Fortunately the chazzan, a much older and wonderful gentleman, born in Europe, spoke before Yizkor. I can't remember what he said.
Wiser because of years, and more experienced, especially by living in Israel for nearly two and a half years of my life, having studied and immersed myself in Zionism, having watched Spielberg's movie "Munich" last night, I can simply say, it's not one of his best. It is fundamentally flawed. It has lines that beg for context and his simplistic treatment allows people, Jews and gentiles, to deduce ideas and thoughts that are erroneous. It is influenced by a pronounced anti-Zionist personality, Tony Kushner. The writers never consulted the living participants or the surviving families. The characters are caricatures. It is disappointing, upsetting, disgusting, much too long, and not worth the price of admission. If I didn't need to make this sermon, I wouldn't have given him my $8.50. What can we say? What should we say?
1. What happened at Munich, 1972 was murder. Murderers are not heroes. Murderers should be punished. Yet the Games went on and the surviving murderers were ultimately set free. The world moved on. Jewish blood watered the German earth, again. This movie is very misleading. The struggle between Arabs and Israelis or better put, between Moslems and Jews didn't begin in Munich. This wasn't a tit for tat scenario. The struggle began in a virtually empty Turkish province, its forests denuded, its water infested with malaria-infested mosquitoes, absentee landowners, and a very small indigenous Arab population along with a small aged Jewish community, mostly in Jerusalem and Tzfat. To this ignored and devastated piece of real estate, the only people to proclaim sovereignty in its area, returned - key and operative word - returned Jews who had learned a difficult and most painful lesson long before the Holocaust - the world, at least the European world, was not hospitable to Jews. Legally obtaining land, purchasing it for cold, hard cash, these Jews, the BILU and other early Zionists, renewed - again a key and operative word - renewed Jewish settlement on the land, where when you dig, you find Jews, Jewish things, and Jewish names. Originally, the Jews were welcomed home - another key word, by the Turks and Arabs. This was not to last. From then on Jewish existence would be bought by blood. Books are sanitized records that don't show you the blood and guts by which the Jewish people reclaimed, resettled and repopulated their - our homeland, all the while attempting to live in peaceful coexistence with the growing Arab population. Ultimately, autonomous Jewish existence, on whatever tiny and inconspicuous area, was, and to some Moslems/Arabs, remains an anathema. That must be extinguished and expunged. He should have named the movie, The Munich Murders, for Munich was just one point in a continuing never-ceasing-saga of the murder of Jews, of Israelis. A truism from the movie - an Israeli is never a civilian. As long as they have served in the army, when they are out of uniform, they are still fair game to be killed. There is no battlefield where the war ends. One side can be defeated but not vanquished, so the fight continues. That is true. The movie corrupts the historical record.
2. Fighting for your existence is dirty. Therefore Israel and Israelis deserve our highest respect and admiration. That does not translate into justifying everything that Israel or Israelis do. But you and I don't have to lift a finger except maybe to write a check. Our lives are not on any battlefield. Our children dream of computers, Ipods, and not learning how to shoot an M-16, fly and jet fighter, or hand to hand combat, or the really dirty stuff of stopping those who would kill you. The episodes after Munich that the movie tries to portray and does so most badly, were not for revenge as much as they were counter-terrorism, so intercept and interdict those who would perpetrate such actions upon Jews/Israelis in Europe. This is not Gene Autry and Roy Rogers. This is blood and gore. This is killing so you will not be killed. The only rule in all of this is that there are no rules. The old maxim is true, this much: All is fair in love - I don't know about that - and war. This is war! It is still war! How do think they have stopped buses being blown up in Jerusalem? How do think they stopped hotels being blown up on Seder night? How do think they stopped they from taking children hostage and murdering them, as they did in Ma'alot, a village you don't even remember? Not by saying "Pretty please." And not by offering anything and everything. The movie shows the dirtiness, but it doesn't show that Israel has cried "stop" and was answered by the three "no's" of Khartoum, no recognition, no negotiations and no peace. Why didn't he put that in, to show the hopelessness and helplessness of Israel's predicament? Why doesn't he allude to uselessness of the United Nations that since 1948 has done nothing to secure Israel's existence and would it be massacred along with all the other massacres that it has done nothing to prevent or stop? Silence. This movie says nothing. For Tony Kushner the creation of the State of Israel was a mistake. And everything that follows from the mistake is fruit tainted by the "original sin." Thus everything that happens to Israelis/Jews is justified.