Daniel Lubetzky

Antonio Soave, a producer and director who heads Capistrano Productions, helped us put together a filming session to record PSAs from Danny DeVito, Jason Alexander, Annie Cusack, and Elliot Gould.

Doug Deluca from the Kimmel show helped us do this at Kimmel Studios in Hollywood, and Barry Meier was the DP.  If you want to see some pics of the filming, click here.

Arianna Huffington and Craig Newmark spoke powerfully at an event that Leah Jones from Edelman helped organize on behalf of the OneVoice Movement, hosted by the guys at Think Tank 3.

Craig always cracks me up with his signature wit.  He is funny, self-efacing, down to earth and extremely bright.  He provided an interesting analogy to how Craigslist thrives because the overwhelming amount of people are decent human beings, and there are far and few bad apples, which the system monitors to do away with.

Craig also quoted his favorite newscaster, Jon Stewart from the Daily Show on Comedy Central, that the reason we hear so much from violent extremists who are so active is "because moderates have shit to do in real life."

Arianna’s Huffington Post is an example of how new media can play a positive role by highlighting the voices of moderation.  She explained how OneVoice has to stay on course no matter what challenges or setbacks or skepticism because it has to eventually achieve the critical mass to get to the tipping point that will get moderates to seize back the agenda. We just have no other option.

Bloggers from Arabisto.com to Jewtopia were present, all in all about 30+ people…

People should never confuse freedom of expression with the freedom not to have to listen or lend credence to bad people, which is as fundamental a freedom as any.

Giving Ahmadinejad the floor at Columbia buttressed him and enhanced him not just globally, but, more dangerously, also at the local level in Iran, where many more moderate figures want to expose and highlight the damage that he has caused to the Iranian people.  Now the Iranian News Agency will edit the portions of the Columbia speech where he got applause (!) and will use this to advance its propaganda.  You see, even some Americans are starting to welcome and respect Ahmadinejad’s message, they will say.

For me the best way to highlight the idiocy of having propped up totalitarian, misogynistic, fatalistic and apocalyptic tyrants like Ahmadinejad by giving him the mantle of legitimacy that came with the Columbia invitation, is to point to how nobody would argue that we should be promoting Hitler’s ideology as worthy of public debate.  Would we really want to give Hitler a podium from which to spew his genocidal hatred?

Alas, Columbia seems lost enough to say it would have supported this too!

"If Hitler were in the United States and wanted a platform from which to speak, he would have plenty of platforms to speak in the United States," said John Coatsworth, dean of Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, in an interview with Fox News. "If he were willing to engage in debate and a discussion to be challenged by Columbia students and faculty, we would certainly invite him." New York Sun

I reject reactionary hawkish right wing extremists as much as reactionary left wing extremists.  But here I guess they are right to wonder whether we have lost our moral compass.

Gary Sharma from Srinagar in Kashmir joined us at a blogger meeting bc
he is stimulated by the OV approach. He explains he and his family
cannot go back to their hometown – and neither can anyone else – since
it literally became a military no man’s land after extremists took
over. A cautionary tale for Israelis and Palestinians.

The only thing more upsetting than giving Ahmadinejad the floor at Columbia University to spew hatred and idiocy, was hearing lame questions from President Bollinger to him.

As anyone could have predicted, Ahmadinejad ignored any questions and just did whatever he wanted with the platform.

Bollinger ran out of steam and out of credit with the audience with his early attacks on Ahmadinejad, which he should have saved for a rebuttal.  Instead, by the time he got to ask Ahmadinejad questions, these had no spine or guts, and no depth.

And why did the audience applaud this monster? Partly again because Bollinger created empathy for Ahmadinejad through his initial harsh criticism of Ahmadinejad, ahead of Ahmadinejad speaking, rather than saving it for when it was needed and advisable, which was when he needed to counter and reject Ahmadinejad.

Alas, Bollinger clearly did not know how to debate him.  And he decided instead to cover his rear by first giving the ‘disclaimer-to-having-invited-Ahmadinejad-to-speak’ speech.  I am sure he will parade that opening statement to all of the school’s donors.  But the fact is that at the actual event, Bollinger failed miserably.

At one point he asked Ahmadinejad if his government sought to destroy Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people, and Ahmadinejad avoided answering the question.  When Bollinger asked him to answer with a simple Yes or No, Ahmadinejad retorted by asking if the tragedy of the Palestinian people was one that needed the immediate attention of the world community.  Bollinger said yes.  But then instead of asking Ahmadinejad to now answer himself, he just let him go.

Like the letter he once wrote to Bush, Ahmadinejad is a scary psychopath.  He complained about lack of freedom in America, without even hesitating at the irony of his comments, as the President of one of the most repressive and totalitarian regimes in the world.

"In Iran, we don’t have homosexuals like you have in your country," said Ahmadinejad.  It is embarrassing that this bigoted monster is given a platform!

Each time Ahmadinejad wrapped himself around the Palestinian cause, but Ahmadinejad causes more pain to the Palestinian people than anyone else.  His manipulation of the Palestinian people has caused so many setbacks to the Palestinian cause.  Because of his proxy attacks through Hezbollah and the militant wing of Hamas, the plan to evacuate Israeli settlements from the West Bank (a plan on which Israeli Prime Minister Olmert was elected by the Israeli people) was derailed. 

The Palestinian leadership is fed up with Ahmadinejad trying to hijack their cause for his manipulative purposes, which only cloud a legitimate cause with his apocalyptic agendas and hegemonic ambitions.  Saeb Erakat point blank asked the Iranian leadership to "stop" trying to help the Palestinian cause and to not meddle in Palestinian affairs. 

Ahmadinejad at one point complained that his host should have been kinder, as in Iran their culture would have mandated more cordial treatment of their guests.  If Bollinger had been better prepared, he could have used this opportunity to mention that Ahmadinejad has jailed, tortured and killed his opponents, and that the "courtesy" he most recently extended to an American scholar trying to help build bridges between Iran and the US was to incarcerate her for many months.

"Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one
can go."

T. S. Eliot
.

I hate not being able to sleep because of all sorts of questions,
anxieties and apprehensions popping up on my mind all night long about
Oct 18. Did any task fall off the cracks? Have we done everything in
our power to mobilize the big numbers and send the precise message?
We have a bit over 3 weeks to go.
.

The guy below is a 6 foot tall basketball player.  These are some of the OneVoice Mandates that Israeli citizens have filled out over the last couple months…

Yizkor happens five times a year, during holy days of Judaism.  During Yizkor prayer services, people who lost their loved ones repeat the Kaddish prayers that they conducted on a daily basis during the first year of their family member’s passing.

For me Yizkor is a time when I go back to the memories of my Dad, and I focus on reminiscing about him.

It terrifies me and depresses me when I feel like the memories of my Dad are becoming more faint and distant.

So I try hard to remember the smallest of details, the most random experiences.

Like when he taught me how to build model rockets that we would then shoot up in the sky. 

Or when he taught me how to melt lead to make tin soldiers, or how to turn on a steam machine. 

Or when he gave me advice about dating my first girlfriend.

Or when he spoke to me about what it was like to be in Dachau and how his father helped him through to survive. 

Or when I last saw him smile, with proud eyes, when I visited him and my Mom on my way out to the airport when visiting in Puerto Vallarta.

Or how he liked to hug his children with unconditional love, and how we fought to lay by his side and hug him even as we got older. 

How he treated everyone with warmth and respect, whether it was the President of the bank or the bank’s janitor. 

How he managed to make everyone whose path he’d cross just a little bit happier. 

How he would organize an "orchestra" with his four children each playing a different kitchen utensil.

here is a link to a poem I wrote about my Dad on the second year anniversary of his passing.  Gentle Tree.

When my Dad passed away, I struggled a lot at the beginning with the concept of doing Kaddish.  Kaddish is a Jewish prayer where one exhalts, praises and blesses G’d.  It is a blessing recited by people who have lost a close relative (parent, child, sibling, or spouse).  The first year after the passing of the family member, it has to be recited on a daily basis, three times a day, at temple.

It was a significant time commitment, but that did not trouble me.

What most bothered me about Kaddish was the seemingly arrogant conceit that G’d would even care about our blessing him.  Why is this even necessary? Why would the all-powerful, omnipresent, life force care about our singing him praises? Who do we think we are?  Why does this matter?

Rabbi Scheinberg from San Antonio, Texas asked me to give this a shot, for one month.  And if I didn’t find meaning in it by then, we’d find something else for me to do to honor my Dad’s memory.  (He also asked me to read Pirkei Abott, which if anyone – Jewish or not Jewish – has not done, I strongly recommend).  My Dad was not religious, but he had done Kaddish for his Father and I felt it was important I do the same.  So I tried.

I found over the course of that month and year, which coincided with the year when OneVoice and PeaceWorks both started growing very fast, that the daily prayers helped me gain strength and focus.  They enabled me to channel my pain at those moments of the day, and then get through the rest of the day.  They also helped me stay grounded and keep things in context.

There is an intellectually interesting Rabbinical theory about the concept of how G’d needs to contract its force and presence in order to let us gain our freedom of choice, and how our prayers – our mental exercises and meditation – help in turn expand the influence of G’d force.  Ying Yang.

The helpful but repetitive book Kaddish by Leon Wieseltier details the political history of Kaddish services, and how they helped communities keep Judaism alive.

Certainly affirming God’s righteousness at a time when you are most vulnerable and upset by the pain of losing those you love the most is a powerful and difficult exercise.

But what is most compelling about Kaddish and all other rites of Judaism related to mourning is how much these are designed to help one cope with the loss, by providing clear moments for introspection but by also requiring us to live our lives, by providing different phases for mourning that help us graduate slowly back into daily life, from the first week (when you sit Shiva at home with your family, cocooned inside under the mantle of your loved one’s still present energy), to the first month (where you cannot cut your beard or hair and still are raw with the pain of loss and the hovering presence of your loved one), to the first eleven months, where you have to avoid "Simcha" or Joys as, it is told, the soul of your loved one rises up to the Shchina, or eternal light…  …throughout all these phases, Judaism is there to help you cope.