On Monday, Kelly Kirby encouraged us to watch Simon Schamas presentation on PBS, The Story of the Jews. Im familiar with Schamas work to watched and recorded the series. Thanks for the tip, Kelly. Simon Schama was born in London in 1945 and educated at Cambridge. Its said that Oxford is the brain of the Church and Cambridge is the heart. In my opinion Simon Schamas work over the years is a marvelous combination of intellect and affect. He is currently a Professor of History and Art History at Columbia, having taught at both Harvard and Cambridge. Part One of this five part series begins with the wail of air raid sirens. The opening shots are of an old lady sitting alone on a park bench knitting, and an over head view of urban freeway traffic. As the siren shrieks, the old lady stands up slowly and closes her eyes. The freeway and urban boulevard traffic stop and every driver and passenger gets out of every car and truck and stands silent, with bowed head. Students stand in classrooms, heads bowed and silent. Medical workers stand with bowed heads, silent in hospitals. This is Yoam Ha Shoak, Holocaust Memorial Day in Israel. It is one moment every spring when people in Israel stop and remember and realize, It could have been me. Still heart breaking, says Schama with a catch in his voice, Then life goes on. Schama says the greatest crime in human history isnt just what the Nazis did to the Jews, but its also what the rest of the world didnt do. Knowing that three million Jews were being systematically murdered in Poland in the spring of 1943, the world did nothing. Knowing that European Jews were being segregated, surrounded, and slaughtered, the world did not accept the boatloads trying to escape. The chapter is written, says Schama, but the Book is unfinished. Philosophically he addresses the question, specifically with regard to the contemporary State of Israel, of the high ethical ideal of a Jewish home OF Palestine, and the reality of a Jewish home IN Palestine. Its a discussion of the tension between Hope and Holocaust; Idealism and reality; What might have been, What is, and What still might be. Its a discussion of the ideal Judaism of encounter, bravery, and life in tension with a Judaism of mere survival. He argues that the Bible is not a blueprint for territorial entitlement for modern Israel. The question becomes: What does ethical idealism look like in the face of raw power? Can Humanity become victorious over Force? As I watched (I recorded it so I could listen and see twice, which has become a necessity for me!) it was easy to find a parallel between Zionists and Constitutional Americans today. By that I mean I wondered whether our Constitution can to be thought of as a minimum ideal, or must it be a demanded reality. Schama argues that it is necessary for imaginary boundaries to exist in the cultural mind, if not in reality. He says the Diaspora, those Hebrews who left the Promised Land and re-settled in other parts of the world, still kept the cultural heart of the idea ethical values of Israel, even when the lived experience or reality was contrary to it. I wonder whether our cultural ideal of Constitutionalism were culturally alive enough to sustain Americans even when our lived reality is contrary to it. And, when compromise is necessary, what would that look like? Would we know it when we see it? In our culture, I wonder if the Constitutional Right is willing to compromise as it moves toward a reification of Constitutional Federalism; and, I wonder what the Secular Left offers as a cultural icon or picture of what a successful Secular Humanist culture might look like? It seems to me that, absent a vivid icon from the Left and a realistic compromise on the Right, we become as entrenched in futile violence as are Arabs and Israelis today. The photography in Schamas presentation is marvelous--contrasts in lines and fluids, textures and shapes, animate and inanimate images. Its all beautifully done. You can find it, Im sure, on line at PBS. Id love to hear what you think about it and how it may or may not speak to our own American reality.
Posted on: Sat, 05 Apr 2014 01:24:21 +0000
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