Topical Anesthetic

02/16/2009

6 Comments

 

Cute title, huh? To set the stage, let me go back in time for a moment. When I was a kid growing up (I'm not THAT old!) twenty years ago (Okay, maybe I am old!), the bulk of Jewish literature was comprised of one of two fundamental themes, by which I mean, of course, Holocaust and ba'alei teshuvah (returnees to Orthodox Judaism). This is probably one of the core reasons I found my way to Steinbeck and Hesse. But I digress....

Today, thankfully Jewish literature has become a lot more varied and even exotic (I highly recommend Targum's new novel, The Morning Star, by Meir Uri Gottesman, a phenomenal writer!), but there is a new genre that has exploded, pardon the pun, on the scene which is disturbing to me. I am referring to Moslem extremist/terrorist literature. Here are some excerpts of this emerging genre--all from books geared to kids ages 9-12:

"Will the trio be able to stop the evil terrorists from destroying Bais Yaakov of Bloomfield?!"

"Will Havaja Jamil Abdul El Majnun Chamarah get his long-awaited promotion?"

"The boys want to help prove Alhami innocent by getting the real terrorist, Alwari, convicted. Meshulem has announced his plan to et Alwari back to America from Pakistan to stand trial."

And then, of course, there's a new comic strip where pint-sized FBI agents are nabbing Arab furniture deliverymen in a sting on what they believe is a shady operation.

I have two objections. The first is the articles I have read on sites like JPost and Arutz 7 about how terrible it is that Palestinian children are being indoctrinated with anti-Israel and anti-Semitic rhetoric. It always makes me feel slightly nauseous. So why is it okay for us to push the same kind of doctrine to our children? Are we not "above" such petty and virulent tactics?

And secondly, Islamic extremism is an enormous, gaping threat, not only to the Jewish People but to the entire world. Innocent men, women, and children have been murdered in its name. Does it not belittle, cheapen, and even exploit this terrible monster when we peddle Islamic extremism as a sensationalist, exciting plot for kids' novels? What message are we really giving our children through books and comics like these?

What do YOU think?

 


Comments

Ronit link
02/17/2009 11:19

Riva, i get what you're saying about the sensationalism and all that, and that we shouldnt indoctrinate our kids to hate. I think it depends on if these books are books written in israel/hebrew or american ones. Americans have less of a reason, but for israelis to write about arabs/terrorism, thats the reality, unfortunately, and to davka not write about them because of the brainwashing aspect... these israeli kids are going to hate arabs whether or not they read the books because in israeli society, arabs easily become the scapegoat for everything. You walk down the street with an israeli kid and most likely, he'll be scared of the arab worker...
The problem comes when these books are translated to english and mass marketed to american jewry, and then we're indoctrinating this arab bias to american jews who don't have as much of a connection to the day to day fear israelis live in of the arabs.

Basically, you can't expect people NOT to write about it, because unfortunately, thats today's world. But i see your point. Maybe these stories need to have arab informers who help jews as well, to show that you can't paint all arabs with the same "Evil" brush.

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joal
02/19/2009 00:22

highly thought provoking piece. human nature natually inclines people to accuse others- most readily- of that which they, themselves are guilty. kol haposel bemumo posel. that said, I also believe that story telling has it's role as a method to help both individuals as well as society, to psychologically "process" and attempt to cope with reality. thus, the previous generation's facsination with nazism. we needed to write about it, tell about it, and yes, to fictionalize about it. the process of exposing ourselves in the realm of imagination to the ideas that are most threatening to us in the real world, helps us to, in a sense, 'face our fear' and increases are ability to go on and cope with an otherwise very scary world. just some musings :-) your work is inspiring - write on!!

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THE SIS
02/21/2009 10:47

I think this is very true, Riva, and I appreciate the psychological insight of the 'joal' :).

In response to joal: I understand your point about the process of coping with reality, etc, and think that it is very true and very necessary. To combine Riva and Joal, and get to a nice happy medium, how about only writing based on what ACTUALLY HAS OCCURED. Holocaust writers stick to the holocaust as it happened... hence, it is either a personal/true story or it is HISTORICAL FICTION.

Writing a story based on a life affected by 9/11 would come under this category; so would an hist fict novel about a family in Israel affected by terrorist attacks, wars, and suicide bombings.

Books about plots against Bais Yaakov and etc. would, therefore, not be appropriate and would have to be seen as fear-mongering and hate-breeding.

Thanks again for your insights :)

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THE SIS
02/21/2009 10:50

think this is very true, Riva, and I appreciate the psychological insight of the 'joal' :).

In response to joal: I understand your point about the process of coping with reality, etc, and think that it is very true and very necessary. To combine Riva and Joal, and get to a nice happy medium, how about only writing based on what ACTUALLY HAS OCCURED. Holocaust writers stick to the holocaust as it happened... hence, it is either a personal/true story or it is HISTORICAL FICTION.

Writing a story based on a life affected by 9/11 would come under this category; so would an hist fict novel about a family in Israel affected by terrorist attacks, wars, and suicide bombings.

Books about plots against Bais Yaakov and etc. would, therefore, not be appropriate and would have to be seen as fear-mongering and hate-breeding.

Thanks again for your insights :)

Reply
riva
02/22/2009 11:42

Wow! I actually elicited a response! My, oh my. I hope I don't get a sore shoulder from patting myself on the back :-)!

I really like feedback. Like...really, really, really!

Thanks, guys, for posting!

Reply
Yehudis
12/17/2009 16:40

"So why is it okay for us to push the same kind of doctrine to our children?"

What's the comparison when they make it up and we are telling the truth?

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