Article by Kerenor Sharabi

“And these names” is a show that combines cinema, contemporary dance and a play on the topic of anti-Semitism. By Honi HaMegal and Keren Or Sharabi.

The meeting between the artist and the creator of the circle, the nationalist Keren Or Sharabi is interesting in itself, Hony is a creator who comes from the field of Dadaism and Surrealism and Keren Or, a creator coming from the world of dance, is what led to the final product “And these are names” woven together from alternating contrasts and harmonies.

“And those are names” is a cinematic work based on 8 episodes of the b.b.c. Regarding the history of anti-Semitism from the Middle Ages until today, which combines with it contemporary dance and creates an interaction between the screen and the creators. A work that maintains a direct and indirect dialogue between what is happening on the stage and the film being projected at the same time.

In the creation of “And These Names” it was necessary to choose the objects that would fit conceptually to the projected theme, as well as casting, choosing musical themes and a unique soundtrack that would fit the choreography depicted on the screen.

Foreign refugees (from Sudan, and the African continent) from the central station took an active part in the show by singing and dancing from the folkloristic repertoire of their country. (copying pieces of life).

Soundtrack: accompanied by rhetorical speeches by Hitler, Mussolini, Begin, Obama and more.

3D projection.

Costumes and masks from minimalism (minimalism in art) to the most brutal extremism, included: the “Caricature of the Jews” mask, SS uniforms, Nazi symbols, refugee clothes, yellow pendants, extermination camp clothes (authentic from Mid-Veshem) to kinetic sculpture – a costume Lighting built from electric lamps.

Kinetic art (from the Greek word movement, movement) is a type of plastic art whose main element is real or simulated movement or development of shapes in space over time. The movement can be created by utilizing forces and physical factors with or without the viewer’s contact (such as the use of a magnet, wind, pendulums, balance, electric or other motors, mechanisms based on splashing water, solar energy, etc.), often utilizing chain reactions and connections between different movements in space. Another approach to kinetic art is to achieve a sense of movement through an optical illusion. Another way to define kinetic art is as “a work in four dimensions”[1], where the fourth dimension is time.

Kinetic art is a product of the 20th century and is a confrontation and exploitation of the meeting between art and technology. Kinetic art is expressed in a number of different schools of thought that emerged in the 20th century, including Futurism, which emphasized the connection to the machine, rhythm and real movement of three-dimensional elements, on the one hand, and the school of Op Art, which uses optical illusions to create the illusion of movement in two-dimensional paintings and graphic works, on the other hand . In addition, kinetic art introduces the approach of sharing the viewer in the work, as the one who moves it or as the one whose spirit creates the illusion of movement.

In addition to this, from the beginning of the play we planted an actress in the audience: a woman sitting in the audience, who is you, enters the action in the crazy character she represents as a Jewish refugee, walks with a meaningless speech in foreign languages from the audience into the interior of the stage and at the climax of the scene is brutally raped by a Nazi soldier.

The choreography in this piece moves from the antisemitism

Hatred of Jews. The term is used to describe incitement, discrimination, violence and any hostile activity directed against Jews, their way of life, their rights or their religion, due to being Jewish.

The term anti-Semitism was coined in 1879 by the German journalist Wilhelm Marr, a converted Jew who himself founded an anti-Semitic party, to define the anti-Jewish movements that prevailed in Europe in the early 19th century. Since then the term has expanded to include all forms of hostility towards Jews throughout history.

The term anti-Semitism denotes hatred of Jews. The literal meaning of the term is “against the heavens”, that is, the hatred of all the people of the Semitic race, which include, among others, the Jews and the Arabs (the heavens are the descendants of Shem ben Noah). In practice, the term antisemitism is used to indicate hatred of Jews only, and it has never been used to indicate hatred towards other heavenly peoples.

The reasons for anti-Semitism throughout history are many, and these are: hatred on religious grounds, hatred on socio-economic grounds, hatred on cultural grounds and hatred on racial grounds. In history, it is customary to divide anti-Semitism into modern anti-Semitism and traditional anti-Semitism, when modern anti-Semitism was built as an additional layer above the traditional one.

Anti-Semitism is opposition to Jews because of their Jewishness. Anti-Semitism manifested itself in prejudice, hatred, hostility, discrimination, oppression and persecution. In the past, the hatred of the Jews stemmed from the policies of the Catholic Church, which accused the Jews of murdering Jesus and refusing to recognize Christianity as the true religion. The hatred of the Jews in the 19th century, which was called “anti-Semitism”, was supposedly based on a scientific and rational basis. One of the principles of modern anti-Semitism was the race theory, which stated that the Jews are a harmful and dangerous people and should be rejected from the general society.

In the same way, the term anti-Semitism was coined in 1879 by a German journalist and anti-Semitic activist, Wilhelm Marr, to denote the anti-Jewish movements prevalent in Europe at the time. Since then the term has expanded to include all forms of hostility towards Jews throughout history. Although the word “Semitic” also includes other peoples – Arabs, for example – the term “anti-Semitism” is only used in connection with Jews.

The phenomenon can be classified according to its causes into religious anti-Semitism, economic anti-Semitism, cultural anti-Semitism and racist anti-Semitism. In history, hatred of Israel was evident in many ways: violence against individuals, or against their property; deportation; legislation that discriminates against Jews; And even attempts, often successful, to eliminate Jewish communities. Anti-Semitism still exists today.

Traditional antisemitism means “hatred of Israel” that existed in ancient and medieval times. Its origin is in the difference of the Jews from the other nations that came into contact with them. The religious factor is the basis for moral and social differences between them.

In ancient times, monotheism, which was the hallmark of the people of Israel, was not received with understanding and sympathy by the other pagan nations, because it was an innovation – belief in one God who is not in the form of a statue. As a result, there was a social and ideological bond that preserved the tradition and customs unique to the people and did not assimilate with the other Gentiles. Things that are not understood or different from what is accepted and known are met with hostility, especially when it comes to an entire group – a phenomenon known as xenophobia (xenophobia, in Leaz).

In the Middle Ages, since most employments were blocked to them, the Jews engaged in interest loans for their livelihood, which the church forbade the Christians to do. This source of income was a source of livelihood for the Jews, but created bitterness and enmity against them in the Christian public. The lending public harbored hatred for the Jews because of the high interest rates. The church hated the Jews, because it claimed that the taking of usury was forbidden, both because of the religious prohibition and because it saw it as robbery, since here a person enjoys a profit at the expense of another’s labor without having to bother. Thus the Jew was portrayed as a lover of greed and a parasite, making a living, as it were, at the expense of others.

The Christians also felt religious hatred, because according to the Christian faith, the Jews rejected Jesus (who started the current of Christianity), a messiah who was born among them, and according to them even brought about his death, as described in the books of the New Testament. The priests used their sermons to incite the common people against the Jews.

The religious rivalry and the loan at interest joined the many superstitions that prevailed in the Middle Ages and together gave birth to a new shocking phenomenon – the blood plots. The Jews claimed that they were innocent, but the hateful, ignorant and superstitious crowd poured out their fury on the Jews, believing that the commandment of Judaism is to murder Christian children and use their blood for religious worship (preparation of unleavened bread, mainly).

Modern anti-Semitism began in the 19th century and is mainly directed against the Jews and not against Judaism. In other words, the hatred of the religion turned into hatred of the people. Modern anti-Semitism is rooted in the envy of the gentiles towards the successful Jews: following the emancipation, the Jews integrated into Christian society and proved their ability to achieve economic achievements, the envy soon turned into irritation and hatred.

The fathers of modern anti-Semitism are Dr. Karl Lueger, mayor of Vienna in the last years of the 19th century, Count Joseph Arthur de Govino, and Houston Stuart Chamberlain. Govino, in his book “Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races” published in Paris between 1853 to 1855, put forward the idea that the key to human history is race, and of course, the “white” race, to which Govino belongs, is superior, while other races are inferior. Chamberlain, a curious case of an Englishman who adopted German language and culture, took an idea This and added to it the destructive hatred of the Jews, which was formulated in his books for the first time in a racial sense. In his book “Foundations of the Nineteenth Century”, Chamberlain elaborated the theory according to which the Jews and the Germans are the only races left in their purity. But while the German is a distilled essence of all that is good in the world, then all The ills of the world can be attributed to the Jew These ideas fell on fertile ground in 19th century Germanyclassics through the Avanger and ends in chaos, destruction and ruin leading to the search for guilt.

and were adopted by personalities such as Kaiser Wilhelm II and Richard Wagner, who was his father-in-law. Lueger was among the first to use the anti-Semitic platform as a unifying glue to incite the masses, in a way that will be all too familiar in history from then until now.

In this context, the Protocols of the Elders of Zion should also be mentioned. This document, apparently forged by the Okhrana, the Tsar’s secret police, (on the basis of a satirical article, taken out of context, and intended to attack the regime of Napoleon III in France), was widely circulated in Europe at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. In the document, which records a supposed meeting of the “Elders of Zion” in the Jewish cemetery in Prague, a Jewish conspiracy to take over the world is described. Despite the fact that the document is a blatant forgery, and the context described in it is childish and novel, the book became the cornerstone of anti-Semitic ideology around the world.

The ideological successors of Lueger and Chamberlain are the “ideologues” of the Nazi Party. Adolf Hitler, and his ideological mentors Alfred Rosenberg and Julius Streicher. The mixture Luger and Chamberlain (each in their own way) of biological racial hatred, (as opposed to the religious hatred that preceded it), and a modern reference to the power of the crowd and the power of propaganda, became the main ideological motif in the Nazi Party. This makes Nazism a unique phenomenon compared to Italian fascism (which adopted anti-Semitism only at a late stage in its development), or Russian communism, which was sometimes anti-Semitic in practice, but never as a declared ideology.

The crisis in Germany after the First World War created favorable conditions for the flourishing of the anti-Semitic lie. It is claimed that the Jew is the communist, the internationalist, who strives to take over the country, to control a select Jewish minority and to commit mass murder in the way that the Jews did in Soviet Russia (as evidence, the Jewish left-wing leaders Rosa Luxemburg and Kurt Eisner for example). It is also claimed that the Jew is the tycoon, the capitalist, who controls the markets and pits the nations against each other, in order to create personal profits.

The masses, who suffered from the results of the war’s loss, primarily the inflation of the early 1920s and the economic crisis after the crash of the world stock markets in 1929, were comfortable accepting this lie, accompanied by the “knife in the back” legend, according to which only the Jews prevented Germany from winning the war. Even without the help of Nazi propaganda, anti-Semitism grew, and even led to the murder of German Foreign Minister Walter Rathenau, by an anti-Semite. Although at that time there was no country in Europe that was free of anti-Semitism and anti-Semitic incitement, Germany was a particularly fertile breeding ground for these ideas, which led directly to the Holocaust.

Holocaust denial is a form that anti-Semitism took after the Holocaust. Although some Holocaust deniers claim that they are not Jew-haters, and try to justify their actions under the pretext of unbiased historical research, the ideological proximity to Nazism leaves no room for doubt that this is another incarnation of the old hatred of the Jews. The idea that the Jews managed to create a lie of such great dimensions as the Holocaust in which six million Jews were killed (“a lie”, according to Holocaust deniers) and give it such good PR that it is universally considered true, is also based on the old anti-Semitic motif of the Jews’ control of the world, and especially in the media. In many countries of the world, and even in Israel, Holocaust denial is prohibited by law.

Political anti-Semitism: There are those who claim that since the establishment of the State of Israel as the State of the Jews, a large part of the anti-Semitism towards the Jewish people began to drain into a concrete address, the State of Israel. The State of Israel, since its establishment, has been accused of a multitude of accusations, some of which claim to be blatantly false accusations, some of which have even become UN resolutions: racism, quarreling and discord with its neighbors, militarism and excessive aggression, oppression and rebellion of the Palestinian people. (Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ).

In the entry ‘Anti-Semitism’ in the Hebrew Encyclopedia, the causes of anti-Semitism are explained: ‘The roots of anti-Semitism as hatred of Jews lie in psychological and sociological factors, which serve as a basis for the phenomenon of hatred of kibbutzim. Within the scope of this phenomenon, it must be seen as an acute form of minority hatred, and as such the action of three factors must be distinguished: hatred of the different, hatred of the weak and hatred of the foreigner. The unity of anti-Semitism as a type of minority hatred is what included the three mentioned factors more consistently and more firmly than any other phenomenon of minority hatred.’ If so, the approach of the Hebrew Encyclopedia is that hatred of Israel is a form of xenophobia, although the intensity of the hatred for Jews is ‘more constant and stronger than any other phenomenon of hatred for minorities’.

Not everyone agrees with this definition – for example, historian Prof. Shmuel Ettinger claims that hatred of Jews does not necessarily stem from hatred of foreigners – the conclusive proof, according to him, is that even in places where there are no Jews, there is anti-Semitism. The Jews are not hated because they are different – because sometimes the hatred increased when the Jews assimilated into society and completely resembled the non-Jewish population. The argument that the Jews were hated because they were weak also has no basis in reality, since in many cases the Jew was hated precisely because the general society had the feeling that he had international power and strength.

The beginning of Christianity

At its beginning, Christianity was a Jewish sect – and thus was born the ambivalent relationship between Christianity and its mother and sister – Judaism. Both religions see themselves as God’s chosen ones, both are fighting for preeminence. And as happens in fraternal wars – the results are severe.

In the eyes of Christians, Judaism and the Jews committed three major sins:

The Jews did not accept the gospel of Jesus and his disciples and ‘insisted’ on sticking to the Old Testament.

It was the Jews who murdered Jesus.

In the Jews’ persecution of the first Christians, they sinned in preventing the spread of Judaism among the world and in preventing salvation from the rest of humanity.

These claims appear in the letters of the first Christians and in the Gospels. For example, Paul writes in his letter to the Christians in Thessalonica:

“[The Jews] killed the Lord Jesus and their prophets and persecuted us [Christians] and are not good in the eyes of God and are revolting to every man.”

And in one of the Gospels it is written that Pontius Pilate, a Roman procurator, cleared himself of the charge of killing Jesus, and the Jews confessed to this charge:

“And it came to pass that Pilate, Pilate, because it would be of no use to the nation, and because the tumult was still great, he took ice water and washed his hands in front of the people and said, “I am clean from the blood of this righteous man, you have seen.” And all the people [the Jews] answered and said, “Let his blood be upon us and upon our children…”

The spread of Christianity

As long as Christianity was a small and persecuted sect – the Christian actions against the Jews remained on a small and limited scale. With the strengthening of the new religion, it was necessary to take an ‘official’ position against the Jews. The first leaders of Christianity uttered many statements of hatred of Israel, such as the statement of John Chrysostom (leader of Antioch Christians in the 4th century AD): “The Jews are full of lust, greedy, greedy, treacherous, criminals, murderers, stubborn, destructive, demon-possessed … They violated the law of nature … There is no atonement, forgiveness and forgiveness [for murdering God].”

However, the ‘designers of Christianity’ in the first centuries AD encountered a difficult dilemma. On the one hand they saw Israel as the previous ‘chosen people’, the biological ‘brothers’ of the true believers – the Christians. Although the Jews did not receive the gospel, and lost the birthright, they still have a solution. On the other hand – how is it possible to atone and forgive the terrible crime of murdering God.

The church father Augustine expressed in the 5th century AD the approach that gave an answer to this dilemma:

“Thus God showed his mercy towards his church, even through his enemies the Jews, because according to the words of the apostle in their transgression salvation came to the Gentiles. And for that he did not curse, but gave them their name as Jews, even though they are slaves to the Romans, lest they disappear completely and we forget the law of God regarding their testimony This is why it was not enough to say ‘don’t kill them’, but he adds ‘scatter them’: that if they had not been widespread over the entire world for their writings, the church would not have evidence to prove the fulfillment of the prophecies in our Messiah.”

According to Augustine, the solution to the dilemma regarding how to behave towards the Jews is precisely not to harm them, because their existence in the world and their humiliation will serve as evidence and proof of the victory of Christianity over Judaism. If so, the Jews have a necessary, negative role in the fulfillment of Christianity

The spread of Christianity in the Middle Ages

The Middle Ages were called in the history of European times – the “Black Ages” – The Dark Ages. Such were indeed the Middle Ages for the Jews of Europe. At that time, the church had a great influence on all areas of life in Europe. The stereotype established in past generations – of a Jew with negative traits, who strives to harm the foundations of society and government – continued to strengthen during this period. The theory that developed since the beginning of Christianity – of a people who murdered God, rejected the gospel and denied salvation to others – was established and became one of the central principles of life in Europe in the Middle Ages.

The Christian influence encompassed all strata of the people and all areas of life. The Christian heritage with its anti-Semitic aspects was passed on in sermons and sermons in churches. Cultural life also reflected these beliefs:

Plastic art – art contributed a lot to the spread of the negative image of the Jews in paintings of a Jew with horns and a tail (in the form of Satan), Jews sucking a pig, Jews performing rituals that harm Christians and much more. Most of the famous creators of the period painted and sculpted works depicting themes from the Christian tradition. In the center of the work you can see the agony of Jesus and in them an accusing finger is always pointed towards the Jews.

Literature – literary characters and works reinforce the negative stereotype, such as the Jewish Shylock in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice. It is interesting to note that this work was written in England when the Jews were not allowed to live in this country at all, yet the anti-Semitic tone is very prominent in it.

Plays – in the Middle Ages, religious plays were very common and were performed in front of all classes of the people. ‘The Passion’ was a type of play that dramatized in detail the agony of Jesus when the Jews played an important (negative) role in it.

Architecture – Many churches displayed symbols on their facades highlighting the victory of Christianity over Judaism. A famous example that still exists today – in the Cathedral of Strasbourg in France, two figures appear – a figure of a beautiful and transfigured woman representing the upright and proud church and next to her is the figure of the ‘synagogue’ (synagogue), her eyes are covered and her head is lowered to illustrate the blindness and humiliation of Judaism.

Language – Language is a tool for conveying messages and opinions. Regarding the word ‘Jew’ this is very noticeable. In European dictionaries, the word Jew is equivalent to an exploiter, an untrustworthy person and a liar. ‘Jew’ also became a verb meaning to deceive. In the dictionary of synonyms we found that in the list of synonyms for the values ‘loan at interest’ and ‘stinginess’ the expression – ‘Jew’ appears. It is important to note that such definitions appeared, for example, in the common Oxford dictionary until the middle of the twentieth century!

Anti-Semitism had a great impact on the daily life of the Jews. The decision of the General Church Council from 1215 stated “that the Jews shall be distinguished from Christians by their dress”. In different countries the distinguishing dress was different: a pointed hat in England and Italy, a heart-shaped badge in some places in Germany, a red and white circle in France and even a yellow patch (!) in Frankfurt and other areas of Germany. Jews were sent to live in special quarters, and the term ‘ghetto’ that we know from the time of the Holocaust – originated in the Jewish quarter in Venice.

This period was characterized by decrees imposed on the Jews, who were obliged to live in the cities under the patronage of the ruler and at his mercy. The Jews were forbidden to work the land (and of course they were forbidden to own land), and because of that they had to make a living from trading and borrowing at interest. There is no doubt that this necessity added layers to the description of the Jew as a usurper, a miser and a swindler who takes over the world through money.

One of the most prominent manifestations of the religious influence on all areas of society and the state was in the Crusades. The Crusades were intended to conquer from the hands of the Muslim conquerors the holy sites of Christianity in the Land of Israel. However, in the religious storm – the Jews, also unbelievers, were considered easy and worthy prey. The moods of the period were expressed by a Jew of the period, Rabbi Ephraim B.R. Jacob of Buna:

“And he went and barked [=the preacher]… to go to Jerusalem to fight with Ishmael, and to all the places where he came, he spoke evil of all the Jews in the land, and scolded us the snake and the dogs, saying: Please avenge the cross on those who hate him who stand before you and then This is how you go to fight for the Ishmaelites…”

The Middle Ages were also the days of that the intellect is the most important and central feature of man. The intellect and its ‘ratio’ should be the focus of human behavior and evaluation. According to this concept, one should look for logic in the world and not act according to feelings and beliefs. Therefore, this approach advocated breaking away from the established religions and supported being based on reason and logic. Philosophers of the time advocated social change on an egalitarian basis, as expressed in the words of John Locke:

“Since human beings are, as we have seen, by nature free, equal and independent, no person can be deprived of this condition and subject to the political power of another without his consent.”

We previously described the religious-Christian background of anti-Semitism in Europe since the beginning of its spread on this continent. It was possible to assume that with the decrease in the influence of Christianity on the lives of Europeans – anti-Semitism would also decrease. Although there is no doubt that in some places, during the Enlightenment, Jews benefited from an improvement in their political-social situation – but in general it can be said that the turn and the change in the social atmosphere led at most to a change and a turn in the nature of anti-Semitism and not to its disappearance.

And yet – a positive effect of the attitudes during this period was the conclusion that it is obligatory to treat the Jews as the whole person, without paying attention to their origin but only to their actions and achievements. Since equality is a supreme, natural and universal value, some thinkers of the time argued that there was no justification for any discrimination on religious grounds. And it is true that in those days the Jews began to gain ’emancipation’ – equality in the eyes of the law.

However, not everything was so simple. This positive attitude was not the only one, nor even the dominant one. It can also be said that this approach created a backlash. First, despite the change in the position of the church – the stereotype of the Jew that is so rooted in the Christian culture in Europe still remains. On top of that, precisely the attitude that pushed aside the irrational belief in religion aroused further contempt for the Jew who was a symbol of those who adhered to an old-fashioned and emotional rather than orthodox belief.

Some examples of the moods of the time can be found precisely in the writings of one of the most famous and important thinkers of that time – François-Marie Voltaire:

“I am certain that the Jewish nation is the strangest of all the nations of the world. Even though from a political point of view it is the most despised of all, it is of great importance in the eyes of philosophers…”

“Well, there is a lot of truth in this, the Jews fulfilled the commandments of their Torah and sacrificed human sacrifices. And this act, which the religion commands, goes well with their way of life. Their books describe them as they mercilessly slaughter everything that comes in their way and revive only the girls for their needs.

“But what should I say to my Jewish brother? Shall we invite him to dine with me? Yes, but on the condition that during the meal Balaam’s desire to be a youth does not cross his mind, that Ezekiel does not mix his breakfast with our meal, that a fish does not come to swallow one of the guests and hold him in its stomach for three days, That a snake would not interfere in the conversation to tempt my wife… and all, that no Jew would surround my house blowing a shofar, destroy the walls of the house, kill me, my father, my mother, my wife, my children, my cats and dogs, in accordance with the old custom of the jews

“It seems to me that you [the Jews] are the greatest madmen. The Kaffirs, the Hottentots [the current term for African tribes] and the Negroes of Guinea are far more reasonable and honest people than your Jewish forefathers. You have surpassed all nations in insolent rudeness, bad behavior and barbarism. You deserve punishment because This is your destiny.

“Everyone is born with bigotry raging in their hearts, just like Britons and Germans are born with yellow hair. I wouldn’t be surprised in the slightest if these people one day bring doom to the human race.”

During the Enlightenment period, the principle of equality between people was raised as a miracle, and indeed in the 18th century many European Jews began to enjoy the fruits of emancipation. But even this principle had a price. Although the Jews were granted equal rights, they were required to go through a process of improvement, correction and benefit, even if this was not explicitly stated. The Jews had the obligation to prove that they deserved this equality. The wording of the French law for equal rights states:

“[The assembly] cancels the rejections, reservations and exceptions, contained in the previous decrees regarding individuals among the Jews, who will take the civil oath, which will be considered a waiver of all the privileges and exceptions previously introduced in their favor.”

Dan Machman wrote about this in the booklet “Between Shoah and Order”:

“Another aspect is rooted in the condition that was stipulated: to give up the privileges. The intention was that the autonomy of the Jewish community had to be abolished, not only by the official law, but also by the will of the Jews. This clearly sounds the demand for a “return” on the part of the Jews for the emancipation. The return is Detachment from what the environment sees as Judaism, and complete integration (dissolution) into society.”

In a short time it became clear that the Jews were not ready to cancel their religious and national identity and “dissolve” in the general society. This thing was portrayed as a lack of responsiveness and a good spoonful. There is no doubt that this was a new and significant layer in the hatred of society in European countries towards the Jews.

From the end of the 18th century until the Second World War

At the end of the 18th century, the romantic movement begins to appear in the landscape of philosophical movements in Europe. The romantic movement was a reaction to the rational positions of the Enlightenment movement. The Romantics emphasized the importance of emotion. The romantic movement gave its signals in the fields of art, but no less influenced the political and social attitudes of the time.

Against the rational claim that all men are equal – the romantics asked the question – were men created equal? Their answer was – of course not. Those with this approach claimed that there are special character traits for different peoples. According to them, various factors other than logic direct man and history. The thinkers of the time began to promote an idea, which developed in the following years, according to which a nation is not just a random association of individuals, but a group with characteristic features that grows together historically. If so – the romantics opposed the idea of the ‘social contract’ of the educated according to which a society exists by virtue of a mutual decision of individuals to belong to a group, since a person does not choose his group of affiliation, but is born and develops within a given historical group.

And the road from there to racism is not easy is not far off, since this statement was not only a historical statement, but a judicial statement. Many thinkers of that time began to develop theories about the superiority of different groups. This approach especially took off in Germany. The German national state was unified at a very late stage in history, and therefore the German national ethos was not based on a group of people living within territorial borders but on the image of the “German” regardless of place and territory. The ‘German’ is a person born into the organic German ethnic group. Therefore it is natural to understand that a Jew, even if he assimilated into German society, could never be part of the living, organic unit of the Germans. Adam Heinrich Miller put it this way:

“As if there is no need for the granting of the national right, for acceptance into the national society, but the capricious formulation of a decision: as if there is no need for entry into the family of a great nation – a group founded over thousands of years by fate, religion, tradition, law and customs, a legacy that has no value , which was acquired through struggle and effort – but in the opening of the gate leading to these temples.”

The development of racist theories was not based solely on the reaction to the Enlightenment movement, but relied on scientific and social developments of the time:

Developments in anthropology (human science) – in the second half of the 18th century, anthropology developed into an independent science. In the first stages, this science dealt a lot with the different human races. The Swedish researcher Carolus Linnaeus, for example, divided humanity into four races by adding a description of their physical and moral characteristics. The British physician Edwards innovated the concept of “historical races” and for example pointed to the different and special physical characteristics of the Jews. Edwards claimed that there is a connection between the dimensions of the skull and racial affiliation and even established a ‘scientific’ formula for determining a value in the ‘skull scale’. In Dan Machman’s book “Holocaust and Order” the words of the French thinker Alfred Fourier are cited and a comment on them:

“‘Hundreds of people will slaughter each other due to the difference of more or less one degree in their skull scale’ – he predicted – and he didn’t know what he predicted.”

If so, the anthropologists found connections between the body structure of people and their origin, but immediately added to this were the social influences, which joined the approaches of the romantic thinkers.

Developments in the life sciences – these days Lamarck and Darwin’s theory of evolution has developed and gained strength. According to this theory, the various species that exist in our world are not the result of creation, but rather the products of the species development process. In the competition between the sexes, Darwin claimed, the strongest wins:

“What are the limits that can be placed on this force, which operates for long ages and grammatically joins the entire body, structure and habits of every creature, bringing good closer and driving away evil?… Ruling species belonging to larger groups within each class tend to give birth to new and ruling types.. . And since not all groups can be big and go, because the world won’t contain them, the dominant groups win over the weaker ones.”

The thinkers of the romantic approach adopted these theories and claimed that the process of evolution also exists in human races. There are strong and positive races that end up defeating the weaker races. These philosophers claimed that the best race, of course, is the white man and that the war of existence – the struggle between this race and the inferior races – including the Semitic-Jewish race – is natural and justified!

Developments in the field of linguistics – this field of research played an important role in shaping racist concepts. The researcher Gottfried von Herder found common lines between the Indian, Gothic (Germanic) Celtic, Greek and Roman languages. He called these languages “Aryan” languages. In contrast, he called the Hebrew and Arabic languages – Semitic languages. The linguistic findings were also adopted to strengthen socio-ethnic perceptions. The claim was that the speakers of the languages that came out of the Aryan mother tongue were peoples related by blood to the group that spoke the mother tongue.

If so – the combination of romantic theories with the innovations in the fields of anthropology, biology and linguistics played a decisive role in shaping the racism that led towards anti-Semitism of the most terrible kind, as manifested in the Holocaust.

To these conceptual processes must be added social factors that occurred in Europe at that time. It was a period of the industrial revolution and the influx of rural masses to the industrial cities. These processes brought about a very fundamental social change in Europe. The previous social hierarchies – were undermined. A new class of capitalists became very strong compared to a growing class of industrial workers who lived in poor social conditions. These processes created enormous psychological and social tensions.

As a result of these processes, two phenomena occurred that affected the attitude towards Jews. First, the Jews, who were a distinctly urban group in their occupations and character, benefited from the changes brought about by the industrial revolution. In the past, Jews were not allowed to purchase land and consequently did not acquire status – whereas now they could integrate into the development and progress that took place in the cities. In a short time, anyone who felt bitterness and insecurity following the enormous changes of the period could once again point an accusing finger at the Jew who exploits the proletariat for financial gain. On the other hand, the industrial revolution and the urbanization revolution also brought with them democratization and education for the masses. The members of the lower classes were involved in the political processes for the first time.

A combination of these two factors resulted in the flourishing of movements that addressed the workers with anti-Semitic messages reminiscent of the days of anti-Jewish propaganda in the Middle Ages. The most well-known work composed in those days is the essay: “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion”. This fake essay comes to point out the danger posed to the Christian world because of liberalism and the Jews. The book describes a secret meeting of Jews that took place in the cemetery in Prague, in which 12 representatives of Judaism describe their plan to take over the world.

Across Europe, the anti-Semitic atmosphere grew stronger – thousands of anti-Semitic conservative associations were founded in Europe and especially in Germany. In France, the trial took place against a Jewish officer in the French army – Alfred Dreyfus. The background to the accusation and the trial was pure anti-Semitism. In Eastern Europe the situation was very serious – against the background of political polarization, the increasing influence of the Prevoslav Church and then in the struggles against the tsars – anti-Semitism was an official government policy. The most extreme manifestations of anti-Semitism in that period were in the murderous pogroms of the “Storms in the Negev” at the end of the 19th century.

And with all of this, the most dangerous phase for the Jews was in the process where anti-Semitism turned from theory to practice. The anti-Semitic theories became the basis for policies and parties in the political arena. In Germany alone, hundreds of anti-Semitic associations were founded in which hundreds of thousands of Germans were members.

Against this background, Adolf Hitler arose, the leader of one of the many anti-Semitic associations in Germany that grew and became stronger and became the National Socialist Party – the Nazi Party.

Antisemitism after World War II

At the end of the war, the allied forces who fought the German army entered the concentration and extermination camps, and this caused enormous unrest in public opinion around the world. Following the horrific findings of the Nazis’ actions towards the Jews, the United Nations Human Rights Convention was drafted and the Nuremberg Trials were opened against the leaders of the Nazi regime.

However, despite the world’s protests against anti-Semitism – surviving Jews who tried to return to their homes after the horrors of the Holocaust – again encountered anti-Semitic phenomena. Once again they hit the Jews who tried to return to their homes and get their property back into their hands. Once again the Jews were blamed for the woes of Europe which was destroyed in the World War.

Since the end of World War II, the incidents of violence against the Jews in Europe have not actually stopped. Over the years, small groups began to freeze the existence of the Holocaust and to cultivate the ideology of the supremacy of the Aryan race again, over the years these groups grew.

The violence and hatred towards the Jews took other forms in different parts of the world.

In Western Europe – in these areas the hatred for Jews is a continuation of the racist ideology that saw Jews as an inferior race. This ideology thrives especially among “neo-Nazi” groups that engrave on their banner the goal of ‘continuing where Hitler left off…’ These far-right groups grew stronger with the increase in immigration to European countries in recent decades and the increase in the percentage of foreigners in the general population. Among these groups there is a phenomenon of ‘Holocaust denial’ and blaming the Jews for spreading these ‘lies’ for political and economic gains. In recent years, the clear anti-Semitic message of the extreme right has been somewhat muted and the focus of the xenophobic activity [=xenophobia] of these groups is the immigrants from the countries of North Africa, Turkey and Eastern Europe, but behind the scenes there are always messages of xenophobia – including the Jews. A particularly worrying phenomenon is the steady increase in the political power of the extreme right in Western Europe.

Another factor in the hatred of the Jews is the continuation of classical religious anti-Semitism – the phenomenon is particularly strong in the Catholic countries. It should be noted that until World War II, the attitude of the Catholic Church towards Judaism was extremely murky, and the silent approval of Pope Pius XII to the massacres of Jews in the Holocaust was a low point in these relations. Since the war there has been a trend of reconciliation between Catholic Christianity and Judaism. The Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) officially cleared the Jews of the charge of murdering God and declared that genocide and racism are antithetical to Christianity. The historic visit of Pope John Paul II to Israel in 2000 is considered the pinnacle of this process. More on this in the special coverage in the newspaper “Haaretz”

In recent years, European Jews suffer from anti-Semitism for new reasons: First, hatred of Jews arose following the awakening of the European public’s anger over financial claims of Holocaust victims from insurance companies, banks and governments, and secondly, the increase in the immigrant population from Muslim countries in Europe caused a new wave of violence against Anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli.

North America – Even in North America there are phenomena of violence and hatred towards the Jews. The neo-Nazi groups advocating white supremacy spread anti-Semitic messages. These groups use terms taken directly from the Nazi ideology – Aryan race, white supremacy, sub-race, ethnic cleansing and much more. Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party are an object of admiration and the Nazi symbols ‘decorate’ their conferences, publications, clothing and body of the members of the extreme right-wing organizations in North America.

In the late sixties of the twentieth century, another group joined the preachers against the Jews and Judaism – these were the Afro-American extremist groups. Their hatred towards the Jews was twofold – hatred towards the white Jewish ‘owners of the century’, and hatred influenced by Arab anti-Semitism, with the increase in the number of Muslims among these groups.

Latin America – Many countries in Latin America were a place of refuge for the heads of the Nazi regime. Over the years, ‘German communities’ arose in them that advocated the same racist and anti-Semitic messages that were common during and before the World War. These Nazi refugees brought with them a lot of wealth and had great influence also among the regimes in the countries where they found refuge. In 1960 there were severe anti-Semitic demonstrations following the capture of Adolf Eichmann from Argentina. Arab communities in South American countries and social unrest have also led to pointing an accusing finger at the Jews!

In the countries of the Middle East and other Muslim countries, a new form of anti-Semitism has arisen – because, according to the classical definitions of anti-Semitism – the Arabs are considered heavenly, too!

The mufti of Jerusalem is considered close to the Nazi regime and saw the Nazi methods as a solution to the problem of the Jews in the Land of Israel. The establishment of the state led to the intensification of hatred towards the State of Israel, Zionism and the Jews. Arab countries adopted the line of propaganda that existed until today only in Christian religious anti-Semitism. The Jew was presented in the cartoons as a miser, overlord and manipulator who is trying to take over Palestine, the Muslim world and the entire world through the Clal Yehudi network. Books such as Mein Kampf and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion were translated into Arabic and widely distributed. To this very day, the anti-Israel propaganda in various countries uses classic anti-Semitic concepts and stereotypes to defame the State of Israel and Judaism.

The (former) Soviet Union and the Commonwealth of Nations – the official anti-Semitism policy of the tsarist regime in Russia survived despite the communist revolution, World War II and even the collapse of the communist regime. The Soviet regime completely denied the Jewish religion, and thus also denied the Zionist movement and the affinity of the Jews of the Soviet Union to the State of Israel and the Jews of the Diaspora. As a result, the Jews of the Soviet Union suffered intentional discrimination and damage to their bodies and property. Certain professions were closed to Jews, and the number of Jews in educational institutions was limited. Hundreds of thousands of Jews were deported to concentration camps in Siberia during Stalin’s purges. During this period, a famous trial took place against 15 Jewish doctors who were accused of the crime of Zionist conspiracy. The Jews of the Soviet Union were forbidden to possess Jewish objects, to learn Hebrew and Judaism, to meet in a social-Jewish framework and to immigrate to Israel.

With the dissolution of the communist regime in the Soviet Union, the restrictions on the Jews were removed, but the social unrest in Russia led to the prosperity and flourishing of racist and anti-Semitic ideologies. (Articles from the Internet). the dwellers of the circle

Honi HaMegal was born in 1955 to an ultra-Orthodox family blessed with children in the distressed neighborhood of Shabazi, a Neve Shalom neighborhood that was one of the first neighborhoods outside the walls of Jaffa. With the founding of the Neve Shalom neighborhood in 1890, his paternal grandfather immigrated from Russia and founded the Shas Company (six sedri mishna), a synagogue and midrash that exists to this very day on Shas Company Street in Tel Aviv. From the age of three, Hony was educated in a “chader” to study Torah. When he finished yeshiva in his youth, he continued to study at “Bezalel” Academy and later engaged in multidisciplinary art and became an artist who copies pieces of life. Honi’s motto is: “The queue for the Mona Lisa fascinates me more than the work itself.” Honi, the founder of the precarious art and the school of uncertainty, activates the five senses in his works and sculpts the audience.

Religion, or rather the trauma caused to him as a result of religion according to him, had a great influence on him as well as on his works. For example, a custom like kissing a mezuzah is associated in his eyes as a source of spreading diseases, wigs are depicted in his eyes as a springboard for lice, he uses the expression “to retire at the age of 3”. All of these express Hony’s attitude to religion, all of which made him examine his existential essence as an artist and as a person.

For many years, Honi worked with the Anko Dada Museum in Ein Hod, participating in festivals and exhibitions. Hony was the first artist to present modern art at Yad Vashem, a second bullet to the Holocaust, exhibited at the Pompidou Center, at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, at the Tel Aviv Museum, published about 10 books and albums, 12 novels and books of poetry such as: “Hamad Libi”, “Tel Aviv many colors La”, “Rag” and more. His great love for the world of cinema made him create many films such as: “The Beach Boys”, which won the editing award in Du Quay and opened the film festival in Toronto, Canada, “Love Story” and many other good ones. In addition, he founded the “Three” gallery and established the “Performance” association for the promotion of interdisciplinary art.

Honi hameagel.

From Honi’s love for the art of cinema and from his preoccupation with the trauma of religion as art and the fact that Honi has always been occupied with the question of Jewish identity and who is a Jew? He came across material from the BBC channel on the history of anti-Semitism, an eight-episode series called And These are the Names of the Children of Israel, in which he decided to make use of the piece And These are Names.

Honi claims that the Jewish religion is pagan. The trauma of circumcision, the pain and the fact that the wishes of the newborn are not taken into account, the fact that every morning a man has to say blessed that I did not smoke a woman, the very fact that the women sit in the back of the synagogue, all these represent in religion in my eyes the supremacy of the man over the woman. In his opinion, this superiority comes from the fact that the man has “uterine jealousy”, the man is limited by his inability to bear children. Honi denies the whole notion that the woman is a helper against him. In his opinion, the man is a “rag” at the woman’s feet. Therefore, he chose to call his group, which has been active since the 1980s until today, “Rag”.

The influence of the Jewish religion on Choni made him ask many questions that are raised in the work and these are names. The uploaded work presents the history of anti-Semitism from the beginning of the existence of the nation of Israel to the present day, including the consequences surrounding it. According to Honi’s view, as we, the Jewish people, have experienced pogroms and the Holocaust, we project what we went through onto other peoples today. You can see a contemptuous and humiliating attitude towards the foreign workers, as well as the non-acceptance of the Ethiopians and Russians as part of the Jewish people, the humiliating treatment at the IDF checkpoints, the creation of separation walls between us and the Arabs and the non-acceptance of another people. Honi sees the Jewish people living within a state Israel as divided and divided into many groups within itself and in fact according to his perception anti-Semitism already begins here within our people. In the work “And these are names” you can see all the symptoms of anti-Semitism that we went through as a Jewish people in exile and here in our country. He saves us from them.” According to Honi, there is an absurdity in the sentence since there is no justification for us to be a persecuted nation, we are a strong nation with a destructive force that can offer a hand for peace to many nations. Honi sees the fear of persecution as something ancient and abysmal, sees the people of Israel haunted by security paranoia. For him, Iran is A good example of this is that, instead of Israel channeling its resources for the benefit of culture and education, it channels them for the benefit of weapons, bunkers, gas masks, etc., based on the security evidence that they are about to destroy us. He strengthens his view with the fact that military personnel become leaders of public opinion, an elected IDF champion to be a real head She and Minister of Defense, why don’t you be Minister of Security? Why not intellectuals, writers, poets, artists lead the country? All control of the country is macho male, there is no creative and constructive artistic conception and the paranoia of security is an obstacle to peace. All of these were cast by Hony in his film “And these are names”. The film presents the history of anti-Semitism, including in it statements made up by other nations about the Jewish people, statements that are terrible and difficult to understand, such as, for example, that the Jews suck the blood of Christians. In addition, the film shows the persecution of the Jews at all times and at the same time what the Jewish people living in Zion do to other peoples. The film shows the state of Israel being destroyed, a country losing its sanity.

When Honi finished the film, he turned to the dancer Keren Or Sharabi, in his words: “I appreciate Keren Or as a renowned creator and producer and I knew that when you saw the film together with her acquaintances with me and her worldview, you would be able to create a dance piece that would create a hybrid between a dancer and choreographer and a filmmaker and multidisciplinary artist And so a wonderful and homogeneous, fascinating and convincing work will be created.”

For him, two non-original things create something new original.

Keren Or Sharabi.

When my husband approached me with a proposal for choreography based on a film he created, I was very intrigued

When I saw the movie for the first time I had to watch it 3 times in a row before I reacted at all. The movie was difficult for me to watch.

I agreed to his proposal and from here began an interesting and developing creative path.

First step: I sat for hours and days on developing ideas and choreography that matches the film.

Second step: searching for music that will bridge the film and the choreography that is being built in my head.

Third step: independent work in the studio

Step four: auditions for professional dancers, for an authentic African population and searching for actors to match the desired characters for this show.

Fifth stage: Rehearsals in the studio which were divided into two parts: dancer rehearsals and actor rehearsals while at the same time I was working in the editing room on changes, additions, a soundtrack for the film itself together with the circle resident who gave me free rein to creativity and went along with me and fully supported every idea I came up with.

At the end of the rehearsals and the work in the editing room, rehearsals were held for everything together: dancers, actors and the film. When I got to the complete product, Hony was invited to watch it and his reaction was positive, he was very satisfied.

The main ideas that were raised in my mind under the influence of the film are: love duet, urination, rape, Christianity, Judaism, chaos, self-beating, and guilt.

love duet

The duet was created out of my identification with the faith of the Jews in the ghetto in themselves and in God, and their loyalty to this faith out of pure love for who they are.

the pee

Due to the great hatred for the Jews for not wronging them and the extremism of this hatred by the Germans’ abuse of the Jews which is reflected in the film, I felt the need for a blatant act precisely in this part of the film, which shows the opposite but also mocking action.

the rape

Bringing the hatred of the Germans to the stage, which shows the abuse and rape of a destitute refugee woman, on the verge of madness, starving (eating potatoes that are hidden in her bra)

Christianity Judaism

A piece that combines acting and dance when conceptually there are two groups on stage: the Christians, the church (Mary) and the Jews and the synagogue (woman).

When a forbidden love duet is created between a Christian man and a Jewish woman which symbolizes innocence and ends in a tear by their families. When at the same time divine harmony is created between the figures of the church, (Mary) and the synagogue. The hidden message here is that everything is in our head and there is no such thing as hatred of others.

self-inflicted

Bringing the ritual beating of the Arabs (Shia Muslims) from the film to the stage.

chaos

Intifada, Jew-Arab hatred, land of strife, loss of values, madness.

Bringing the political situation between us and the Palestinians in the State of Israel, as it is presented in the film, to the stage as a dance piece.

accusation

I felt a great need to create the blame, because we are all looking for who is to blame in the end, in everything in life. Especially after chaos and an atomic bomb.

That’s why this blame was created in a dramatic way when in the end the finger of blame is on everyone and everyone separately.

Video clip from the piece: “And these are names”:

In the bibliography:

Bezalel Landoi, The blood plot in the history of Israel from Hanim, issue 5, Nissan 5773.

http://www.brainkingdom.com/ans1015.asp

http://www.zolo.co.il/hagim/yh/AntiSemitism.asp

http://www.daat.ac.il/daat/kitveyet/mahanaim/floser2a-3.htm