page 4 - Out in the Mountains  ' ' '

On being a Jewish reviogtlutionaryi.

by Carol (Crow) Cohen
I

I emigrated to
skeptical about the creation of a
"Jewish homeland,” feeling guilty about
the displaced and mistreated
Palestinians, worried about the rampant
sexism, and ready to come back to
Vermont in six months if I found
myself still struggling to adjust to an
alien and "inferior" culture. Three and
a half years later I did finally decide
to return to Vermont, but I came back
as a passionate, self-affirming Jew -- in
touch with pride and compassion for
Jews from all over the world. I also
became aware that anti-Semitism still
has a firm grip all over this violent,
racist plant even in my beloved
women's movement mostly in the form
of virulent anti- Zionism and a
reluctance to radicalize around the
issue of being Jewish. I came back
with the shocking realization that the
establishment and continued existence
of Israel is nothing short of a
desperately needed, legitimate Jewish
revolution!

I realize that I would never have
had the "chutzpah" to suggest Israel is
indeed a Jewish revolution if I hadn't
lived in a Jewish "separatist"
environment, just as I never would
have come out as a radical lesbian if I
hadn't withdrawn from the dominant
heterosexist culture and turned my back
on most men for several years.

As far as I know, no
Jewish-American radicals (lefties,
straight feminists, dykes, gay men or
anarchists) that abound in Vermont go
around proclaiming Israel a Jewish
revolution. They vocally and visibly
support the South and Central
American, South African, Native
American and Palestinian revolutions;
but Israel seems to be condemned as
one of the worst offenders of human

rights in the whole world which is
patent nonsense and proof once again
that the Jews are internationally
scapegoated.

I can't help regarding the

Holocaust as the most sadistic crime
perpetrated on a people in human
history. Germany's official government
plan on the books to use modern
technology to eradicate the Jewish race
was not based on a fight for territory
(the Jews weren't allowed to own
land!), or for political or economic
hegemony (the vast majority of Jews
had virtually no money or power). The
"final solution" of the ‘Jewish question"
was not just the result of one raving
maniac (Hitler) but gained worldwide
support as Jews were deported from all
over, as most countries turned their
back on Jewish suffering when
"rumors" about the concentration camps
became available to government leaders,
and Jewish refugees were denied entry
into several countries including

Israel in 1981.

Palestine after the war.

There is no doubt in my mind
that the Holocaust was the "logical"
culmination of five thousand years of
Jewish oppression, and that nothing
short of Jewish revolution could have
established the unlikely state of Israel.
Why in tarnation would Brazilian,
French, Yemenite, Moroccan, Egyptian,
Canadian, Russian, German, Ethiopian,
English, American, Argentinian, Swiss
and Scottish folks come together and
try to run a country if they hadn't
been pushed by the rest of the world?!

Admittedly, Israel is a violent,
patriarchal revolution no worse and no

better than the other revolutionary
movements afoot in this world of
nation- states about to erupt into

nuclear holocaust. As a Jew I support
the Jewish revolution with a great deal
of criticism and reservation due to its
violent nature. As a woman
(specifically a dyke) I declare myself a
Revolutionary with a capital "R"
because my concept of Women's
Revolution is non—violent using mostly
psychic power and energy. That kind of
Revolution has obviously not yet
occurred in history. (A girl can dream!)

II

It's ironic that sex between men is
prohibited in the Bible, but there is no
mention of the "sin" of sex between
women. It probably never crossed their
minds back then that women might
"live it up” in those harems; or maybe
it did, but nobody seemed uptight about
it. Anyway, the “law of return‘ which
is Israel's way of calling back to the
homeland the Jews scattered all over
specifically dpcsn‘t apply to hardened
criminals or homosexuals. However, they
obviously don't make a fuss as long as
you don't declare yourself a queer when
you're making out your papers.

I immigrated through the Jewish
Agency in Montreal (because it was
closest to Burlington), and they could
have found out in a minute if I were a
dyke just by picking up a few back
issues of Commonwommon (may she
rest in peace). Obviously, they didn't
check all that closely -- probably
because I had a daughter and an
ex-husband who had already been over
there a couple of years. That they
knew. Once I was there, I could dress
as "dykey" as I wanted (tanktop
t-shirts, cut-off jeans, political buttons,
hairy legs and underarms, headbands)
because they thought I looked like a
hippie. However, if you called yourself
a "feminist" they automatically assumed
you were a lesbian. That's probably due
to the "scandal" back in the mid '70's
when Marcia Freedman who was a
member of the ‘Knesset’ (parliament)
ran on a woman's party tick;-,r_ and
later left her husband and came out at
the age of 40 which the Israeli media
picked up on.

Whé,r_t.I got there in I981, a
woman's ‘center (Kol Ha-Isha -- A
Woman's Voice) had been operating
right in downtown Jerusalem for four
or five years. Unfortunately, it closed
‘down due to burnout in 1983. There
were a couple of battered women's
shelters in the country, a rape crisis
hotline, and an annual feminist
conference which drew two to three
hundred women, but allowed for one
lesbian workshop despite the fact that
the dykes often kept the feminist
movement active as they do all over
the world. There was also a tiny gay
men's coffee shop in Jerusalem run by
political men which lasted about a
year. The gay male movement, however,
was responsible for the law saying that
you cannot get kicked out of the
Israeli army for being homosexual. Is
there any other army in the world that
has such a policy?!

There were a couple of gay bars
in Tel Aviv -— one of them featured a
women-only dance once a month. This
year there was a women's music
festival in Beersheba (predominantly
straight, however). Gay and feminist
cultural events are very rare.

On a personal level I often felt
“philosophically lonely‘ around such
issues as non-monogamy, classist
attitudes and communal childcare which
women in Burlington had been debating
for years. In general, though, the
Jerusalem women's community felt more
intimate, more grassroots, and more like
family than what I've experienced in
America. The meetings tend to be more
chaotic (less polite) where feeling and
especially opinions are passionately
expressed. There were frequent lively
parties since the Israelis love holidays
and celebrations. There was also a
strong justfiably anti-religious feeling
in the community since Orthodox Jewry
(which is very misogynist) has a lot of
political power in Israel and there is no
"separation of church and state.“ On
my first Passover, my Israeli lover said

with shock, "What?! You don't eat
bread on Pesach?" I said, ‘No, I eat
only matzoh. It's a fine American
tradition."

It's actually a wonderful luxury to
feel so connected to Judaism culturally
and not have to grapple with fitting
the religious tradition into my radical
feminism. Despite our cultural gaps in
the women's community there was
definitely a recognition of struggling to
live in one of the most unpopular
countries in the world, and of us
immigrants trying to learn a new
language (Hebrew, of course) which can
have a tremendous bonding effect. Also,
many of the radical women were very
active in anti-war politics and
confronting anti-Arab racism.

continued, page 5