JUF Executive Vice President Michael Kotzin delivered the following remarks at the opening of the 2009 Chicago Festival of Israeli Cinema on Oct. 29, 2009.
"Once again this year, the Jewish United Fund/Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago is a proud sponsor of the Chicago Festival of Israeli Cinema. We are pleased to join with the Consulate General of Israel to the Midwest, our partner as a major sponsor, and all of the other community organizations and groups that are supporting this endeavor. We applaud the work of Peggy Shapiro and all of those who have worked to ensure the success of this important endeavor. And I want to single out my colleague Paula Harris for her efforts in maintaining this effort on behalf of JUF.
"Film – in the form of movies, television dramas, and videos on our computer screens – is the art form of our age. With a few exceptions, some of them notable, in its earlier years, Israeli cinema and television drama were, truth be told, rarely of major quality. The plots were stilted, the characters flat, the production values limited. In the last few years, however, there has been a virtual flowering of Israeli cinema. Gripping themes are explored. Dramatic works are engrossing. Comedies are entertaining. Characters, portrayed by skilled actors, have depth. The production values are first-rate. And much of this work is highly original. Indeed, Israeli cinema has become world class, its products highlighted in film festivals around the world and successful in Oscar races and other competitions. As for television drama, an example of a powerful work that has even been adapted for American TV is “B’Tipul,” that became HBO’s prize-winning drama “In Treatment.”
"This is all happening in the context of a virtual renaissance of creativity in film and other forms of Israeli culture, including literature and the arts. For starters, then, this Festival of Israeli Cinema provides Chicago audiences an opportunity to see and enjoy some of the best that is emerging on the world scene. At the same time, though, there is something more.
"Good movies from foreign lands offer insights into the particularities of those countries while also, like all great art, resonating with universal principles. For many members of the Jewish community and other friends of Israel, Israeli cinema enlarges our understanding of that country and enhances our sense of connection with its people. For individuals less close to Israel and even some of those in the previous category, viewing such works can provide images of aspects of the Israeli reality different from what is so often seen in media treatment of the subject, which frequently focuses on aspects of the conflict with its neighbors in which Israel has been forced to engage since its creation and even before. Not that this conflict and the context it creates is absent from all of these films. But, to use the language of film, by portraying Israel through a human lens, they certainly do bring much more to the picture. The subject matter of this evening’s film, focusing on a segment of the Israeli population that is not so familiar even to many people who have visited there many times themselves, is a case in point.
"Meanwhile, lest we otherwise might not be thinking of the conflict-related context, we certainly were reminded of it when, while entering the theater building this evening, we witnessed anti-Israel demonstrators. That demonstration, calling for a boycott of Israeli culture, is part of a broader movement aimed at enlarging boycotts of Israeli products, academics, and more, which has joined efforts to invoke business divestment and to apply sanctions to Israel.
"While its promulgators sometimes ostensively call for peace, the vision of peace that they widely hold is one which would involve a Middle East without Israel or with an Israel shorn of its identity as the national homeland of the Jewish people. While ultimately thus aiming at eliminating Israel, many of today’s adversaries of Israel aim first at weakening it through boycotts, divestment, and sanctions. As a step toward that end game, their immediate goal is to demonize Israel and blacken its name through the slogans and imagery they promulgate via their agitation.
"Boycott, divestment, and sanctions – destructive in themselves – are meant to bring to mind the measures that were taken against the illegal apartheid regime of South Africa, to which Israel is often specifically likened by these demonstrators when they flaunt the word “apartheid” itself as did tonight’s protestors. Sometimes they go even further, likening Israel to the Nazis. This program of attempted delegitimization of Israel has escalated in recent years and in recent months. It is that to which we all bore witness this evening as we entered the theater to view this film and to inaugurate the current Festival of Israel Cinema.
"Those of us who believe in free expression and who affirm Israel’s right to exist – and hope that there ultimately will be a peace between Israel and its neighbors that brings a better life and personal and group fulfillment to all parties to the conflict – cannot be intimidated by such measures. Attempts to limit artistic freedom and the right of free citizens to support and enjoy the artistic products of the citizens of the Israeli democracy are to be condemned and resisted by all people of goodwill.
"Meanwhile, tonight and as this Film Festival moves forward, we have an opportunity to be entertained and engaged by an art form that expresses the vibrancy, creativity, and humanity of Israel in ways that are both particular and universal – just as Israel itself, like all other countries but in its own special way, is a distinctive yet normal state in the family of nations."
