Sunday, May 22, 2011

Reclaiming Jewish Values

Recently, I participated in  a training for creating  flashmobs. It was a lot of  fun. Organizing a flashmob is more involved than it might look. There is the obvious: thinking up and rehearsing the lines and the dance moves, organizing lots of people and getting them into a public space without arousing suspicion. But there are other pieces too: the videographers, the "innocent bystanders" who seem keenly interested in the flashmob but are really plants, other people whose job it is to act as buffers if there is any belligerent behavior against members of the flashmob and others and many other pieces of organizing.

What I loved about this flashmob in D.C. on Friday is the riff on the iconic Jewish wedding/Bar Mitzvah song "Hava Nagila." "Hava Nagila's" ubiquity  makes it instantly recognizable not only to Jews but to anyone whose ever been to a Jewish event. In big-city America, you'd have to lead a severely isolated existence not to recognize  "Hava Nagila" and identify it as Jewish.

This flashmob in D.C. was directed  at AIPAC. Jews are challenging the supremacy of the pro-war Israel lobby. AIPAC is no longer is the sole voice of America's Jews.

Move over AIPAC! A New Judaism is arising. A Judaism of solidarity with the dispossessed, a Judaism of peace and justice.

you tube clip taken from Mondoweiss

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