SOME THOUGHTS FOR THE AUDIENCE SEEING “SEVEN JEWISH CHILDREN”
By Kenneth Stern, Director on Antisemitism and Extremism, American Jewish Committee

While I strongly support the right of the New York Theatre Workshop to have a reading of Caryl Churchill’s play, NYTW is aware of my concerns.

One problem (which I will not expand upon here) is how parts of the text (I assume unintentionally) implicate historic antisemitic canards, such as the reference to “chosen people” and gleeful mention of the pain of others, including “dead babies” and “their children covered in blood.” If anyone wants to know why these parts trouble me so, email me at sternk@ajc.org, and I’d be glad to discuss.

What troubles me more is an even larger problem. For many, the Israel-Palestinian conflict is a blood-boiling issue. Too many people have a tendency to ascribe all good to one side and all evil to the other. I’m not suggesting that I don’t have strong views about how to divide the equities. I do. But the reality is that however one wants to view the role of the Israeli government or the theology and ideology of Hamas, or any of the thousands of other factual and historic questions, they are complex, not easy. We have two peoples who have history and connection to the same region. Both want national self expression. Neither are going anywhere.

I’m tired of the failure of so many from all sides who say they care about this issue, but who don’t evidence the capacity to put themselves in the others’ shoes. Sure, there are differences one can articulate between the situations, and we might not all agree on such ultimately useless questions of who has what worse and why. But I’m skeptical of how many pro-Israel people actual contemplate deeply what life is like as a Palestinian on a daily basis, and I’m convinced that most people for whom Israel is always in the wrong cannot put themselves in an Israeli’s position for a second, because Israelis are being seen as increasingly evil. Have we lost the capacity to imagine, to wonder, to empathize?

Tell her your wish. Tell her that her grandchildren and their grandchildren should have lives like everyone else. Tell her they should be free to be who they are. Tell her everyone will have to make difficult sacrifices to get to that day. Tell her it will be worth it. Tell her that we have to find a way to reject hate, bigotry, dogmatism, and the comfort of easy answers.

Tell her. Tell her people have to change. Tell her I have to change. Tell her I have to wonder, always, what it would be like to be the other. Tell her confusion is better than certainty.

Tell her you don’t care if you are right or wrong any more. Tell her if you feel self-righteous you’re helping doom her grandchildren. Tell her you want to see those grandchildren.

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