By Jessica Davis, JTNews Correspondent
More than 100 people attended “Rising from the Rubble: Anti-Semitism and the Aftermath of September 11,” a forum on the evening of March 11, the six-month anniversary of the terrorist attack on the U.S.
The Anti-Defamation League, AIPAC, American Jewish Committee, Haddasah and the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle presented the program at Herzl-Ner Tamid Conservative Congregation on Mercer Island.
Guest speakers included Ethan Felson, assistant executive director of The Jewish Council on Public Affairs in New York City; Tana Senn, co-chair of the Government Affairs Subcommittee at the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle; and Rabbi James Mirel of Temple B’nai Torah in Bellevue. Rick Harkavy, executive director of the Seattle office of the American Jewish Committee, moderated.
To start off the discussion, Harkavy asked the audience if the media coverage of the situation in the Middle East was accurate and if the Jewish community was overreacting. Felson walked up to the podium. Felson said he moved to New York City on March 13. On Sept. 11, several of his friends gathered in his apartment to watch the TV news coverage and look out his window at the rubble. One of his friends and neighbors, the great-grandson of the founder of Chevrolet, was there. The friend told Felson that because of the attack, people would now question the prices the U.S. has paid for Israel. His neighbor continues to hold on to the perception that Israel is to blame for what happened on Sept. 11.
“He was misinformed by the media,” said Felson. “Jews living in America today were living their lives with comfort, yet on Sept.11 things turned upside down.”
There were false e-mails going around that the attack on America was a Jewish plot, said Felson. He said the image of Jews controlling the media is dangerously alive and well. The rights of minorities have been threatened by racial profiling, he said.
Felson said that in France, the media criticism of Israel is so vicious that as a result synagogues are being desecrated and schoolchildren are being victimized. Felson left the audience with a question of what the public can do to educate those with “innocent” misunderstandings, so they do not breed into something more dangerous.
Senn was next to speak. She said diverse faiths such as Judaism have been threatened since Sept. 11 and there is a misguided belief that the attacks happened because of lack of faith. The public needs to protect the First Amendment separation of church and state, Senn said. Following the attack, many turned to faith, she said.
“Patriotism and religious enthusiasm have become intertwined,” said Senn.
She proceeded to give some examples of this. Senn mentioned a bill in Michigan that stated that posters saying “In God We Trust” could be put up around town. Jews and others against the bill were called unpatriotic, said Senn.
On Nov. 15, the House of Representatives passed prayer time for students. Jews have been reluctant in getting involved with these issues because they do not want to appear unpatriotic, encourage anti-Semitism or discourage Bush’s support for Israel, said Senn.
“We can’t let those events scare us from standing up for those issues that we believe,” she said.
Rabbi Jim Mirel was the last to speak. Anti-Semitism is like pornography, said Mirel: you cannot explain it, but you can recognize it when you see it.
“Those who hated us on Sept. 10, still hate us. Those who loved us on Sept. 10, still love us. The question is about those in the middle,” he said.
It is the people in the middle that matter the most because they are the majority, well over 200 million Americans, said Mirel. “You might say they are the salt of the earth.”
He said the good news about the Americans in the middle is that after Sept. 11, their naïveté has lessened, but their sophistication has not heightened.
“From a purely Jewish perspective, I feel more secure,” said Mirel.
Most Americans understand that resolution requires American involvement, but most do not understand the complexities of the Middle East, he said.
“People are more open to talking, not necessarily agreeing,” said Mirel.
After Mirel finished speaking, the forum opened to a question-and-answer session with the audience. A man in the audience commented that he felt the “In God We Trust” controversy was not a big issue, as the motto is printed on American money. He said he thought many get muddled down with liberal-minded thinking. He told the speakers that America is a free nation and not to forget that almost every Jew was against Bush and now he is their biggest ally. “I just think you’re off on the wrong track,” he said.
Another man in the audience accused The Seattle Times and The Seattle Post-Intelligencer of being pro-Arab and anti-Israel. “This goes on every single day,” he said.
In response, Harkavy said the articles in the newspapers are mostly from the Associated Press. “It’s a very complicated, emotional issue,” he said. Harkavy added that attacking the newspapers could backfire.
Sharon Finegold, an audience member, responded to this comment as well. She said that last March when she came back from Israel, she was disturbed about the silence of the Jewish community. Since then, she and a small committee have come up with a speakers’ series to educate the public about how to respond to the media. Finegold said she is working on getting a group together to respond to the media’s inaccuracies and encouraged the audience to write op-ed pieces. “That’s the first battle in the war,” she said.
“Hopefully this will be a good beginning and I want to wish you all the very best,” said Harkavy in closing.