Israel Matzav

'Sunrise, sunset,' Iranian style

In my generation, nearly everyone saw the play, the movie or both of Fiddler on the Roof. For the younger generation who may not have seen it, here's one of the classic scenes, with which any parent who has married off a child (as many of you, God willing I am marrying off my second next month) will undoubtedly identify.



(By the way, for those who are interested, a search of "Fiddler on the Roof" at YouTube brought back 1290 hits).

Unfortunately, the Islamic Republic of Iran, which denies the Holocaust, finds evil even in this classic movie.

Iranian TV is running a documentary series that traces 'Zionist themes' in Western Movies. The video below is part of what they had to say about "Fiddler on the Roof." It aired on IRINN on May 22, 2008. A transcript follows and I will have another video for you at the end.

Let's go to the videotape.

Narrator: For two decades, during the 1960s and 1970s, the Zionist regime and its imperialist supporters faced many crises of legitimacy. Some of these crises were the result of the exposure of the terrifying image of this regime, when it used its war machine in the Six-Day War. Other crises were due to the fact that the struggle of the Muslims in the occupied lands and against Zionist strongholds in Europe focused the attention of the world on Palestinian suffering. So the cinematic propaganda machine of the Zionists focused on falsifying history, and on portraying the Jewish minorities as oppressed, for the benefit of the bloodthirsty, aggressive Zionists.

[...]

Iranian film critic Majid Shah-Hosseini: [The messages] in a film like "Fiddler on the Roof" are hidden deeper, and it is more sentimental and romantic [than other films], but it strongly defends the Jews and the view that they are oppressed. By the way, this film was directed by Norman Jewison, a Jew.

[...]

Narrator: The film "Fiddler on the Roof" tries to conceal one of the reasons for European and American hatred of Zionism, which was their control of the resources of wealth and power. The film depicts the Zionist immigrants' forefathers as kind and poor people, who immigrated out of poverty, and not out of a desire to occupy [Palestine].

Now I suppose that if you can deny the Holocaust, you can also pretend that Jews came to Israel to 'occupy Palestine,' and that the Jewish condition in 19th and early 20th century Europe was a picnic.

For a more realistic view of what life was like in Europe 100 years ago, here's another song from the movie that the Iranian anti-Semites would undoubtedly brand a 'lie.'



The other night, Mrs. Carl and I were talking about how seventy years ago, we probably would be sending our son and daughter-in-law off to study in Yeshiva in Europe and not see them for years. Instead, they will likely be living less than an hour's drive away. That gives me the perspective to be grateful for what I have, and not let it bother me so much that the anti-Semites resent how I got it.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:00 PM