By Jack Greenberg, , Seattle
I personally, together with help from others in our own community and the Port Townsend Jewish community and an Edmonds non-Jewish high school teacher, for seven days handed out in front of the Port Townsend Co-op well over a thousand pieces of literature to refute the slanderous, fallacious anti-Israel contentions of the boycotters. I was always dressed as an Indian, wearing war paint, a full headdress of feathers, and a placard stating “Let Me Tell You About Land for Peace.”
In our handouts we asked the co-op patrons to attend the two co-op directors’ board meetings, a Mideast peace symposium, and the Israel deputy consul’s speech in the hope that large numbers would sway the board away from the boycott, when they would make their decision. We were especially pleased by the huge turnout in the packed final meeting, where 50 people lined up and addressed the board.
We solicited the congregations and pastors of three evangelical churches, who were very sympathetic and helpful to us by their presence, e-mails and letters. And Prof. Edward Alexander was able to get into the two local newspapers superb articles in support of Israel.
The staff and members of the Seattle Sephardic Bikur Holim Congregation were particularly gracious and helpful in all this. And we are grateful for the guidance and support given us by Rabbi Marvin Hier’s Simon Wiesenthal Center, Americans for a Safe Israel, the JerUSAlem Connection, and the Zionist Organization of America. Other Seattle-area Jewish organizations assisted and joined in the fray as well.
The moral of this story: For us to survive we Jews must all come together to keep, protect and celebrate our identity, and be swift, bold and steadfast in answering attacks upon it.