An innovative virtual “museum” hopes to help American Jews rethink their understanding of the Israeli/Palestinian relationship. It is the brainchild of Dr. Steven Feldman, a dermatologist in Winston-Salem, NC. We did a short video interview with him to find out what he is doing and why he is doing it. Read more and watch the interview….
“American Jews have been on the front lines of anti-discrimination efforts inside the USA”, says Dr. Steven Feldman. “The museum uses largely Jewish sources to encourage American Jews to take a new look at Israel. It documents our role in making and keeping Palestinian families refugees from their homes, actions inconsistent with our Jewish values.”
The museum presents first hand materials supplementing available resources from Jewish Voice for Peace and other organizations that offer educational materials and programs about the Nakba from a Palestinian perspective. The Nakba, or “catastrophe,” refers to the 1948 exodus when Palestinian families were driven from their homes.
The website of the museum (https://promisedlandmuseum.org/) includes a video introduction.
CTIP recently spoke to Dr. Feldman about what prompted him to create the museum.
“You know, it’s a one way street. You don’t start believing in equal treatment and then say ‘I only believe in equal treatment for Jews”, but YOU CAN GO from “I support Israel” to “I support peace, justice and equality for both Jews and Palestinians.”
– Dr. Steven Feldman
More information about the museum can be available by writing directly to the museum through its facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/promisedlandmuseum, or by emailing info@promisedlandmuseum.org. Dr. Feldman’s personal email is sfeldman@wakehealth.edu.
Canada Talks Israel Palestine (CTIP) is the weekly newsletter of Peter Larson, Chair of the Ottawa Forum on Israel/Palestine (OFIP). It aims to promote a serious discussion in Canada about Canada’s response to the complicated and emotional Israel/Palestine issue with a focus on the truth, clear analysis and human rights for all. Readers with different points of view are invited to make comment.
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It appears that most Jews consider JVP to be an antisemitic organization that uses the fact that its members adhere to some form of Judaism can be used as a shield from the accusation. It does not work for them and it does not work for you.
The Nakba is the constant humiliation that Arabs suffer for being beat by Jews in the war they started because hey feared losing political power to legal immigrants, thus ending their genocidal aspirations.
Hello Mr. Sigman,
i am not clear who you calling anti-semitic. Me or Dr. Feldman? Do you consider that Jewish Voice for Peace is also antisemitic?
Thank you for commenting!, Mr. Sigman I appreciate your knowledge of this area and your commitment to peace and justice. If you are correct that “most Jews consider JVP to be an antisemitic organization,” I suspect it is largely because those Jews don’t yet realize that we expelled entire villages of peaceful Palestinian families from their homes to create a country run by and for us Jews. I believe those who accuse JVP to be antisemitic are at least as moral as I am, maybe more so, and would be as shocked & dismayed as I was when learning how we made and kept so, so many Palestinian families refugees from their homes. Hopefully our museum will rectify many of the misconceptions people continue to hold so that the peace, justice, and security we all want for everyone can reign.
Hey Jack,
Did you ever consider that you might be an antisemite. What is the connection between you and other European/North American Jews which makes you Semite. Many of those Western Jews haven’t been in that region for 1000 years and have nothing in common to that land. Isn’t the Jews and the Palestinians who lived there for millennia are Semites, descendants of Abraham.
Don’t you think that your ideas promote hate, discrimination, torture, death, theft and destruction.
Even at times death in a minor way to Jews in Israel.
How do you explain that thousands of Israeli Jews turned with time against Israeli policies and actions. The same for thousands of very vocal Jews in diaspora, who with time changed from Zionists to anti Zionists. (I’m one of them). How about hundreds of thousands of diaspora Jews, who have negative views of Israel, but are silent, due to consequences.Also the same for hundreds of thousands of non Jews around the world who went through same transformation.
Is it possible to believe that you, (an educated person), really believe that all the above are antisemites or became antisemites.
I would like to think better of you.
As a Palestinian-Canadian, I believe that acknowledging Nakba as it happened is critical starting point for any path of truth, justice and reconciliation in historic Palestine. We may need an an international finding mission committee to help with that. In the meantime, efforts like Dr. Feldman’s are important and appreciated. Thank you for your work.
Well said! Much like the South African Truth Commission.