Listen to other people's viewpoints

In response to Philip Kurian’s Oct. 18 column, “The Jews,” I am going to speak for myself and only for myself.

I am a Jew. I am Israeli. I was born with these labels. When one says, “the Jews,” or when one says, “Israelis,” I take it personally. They are talking about me. You are accusing me. I did not sign any petitions against the Palestine Solidarity Movement. I hope and believe that you could find 92,000 Jews who would not sign that petition. My parents aren’t doctors or lawyers. I don’t own a Prada bag, nor do I wish to. I am not here to lament over my life circumstances—the message that I have absolutely no right to do so has been pounded into me.

But I know at least one person who signed that petition, and while I will not defend his signature, he is not just a number to me. I think one way to demystify and reverse this hurtful and unproductive “otherization,” generalization, and finger-pointing that has overcome our newspaper and threatens to overcome our campus, is to put a name and face to our labels.

That person is my father. If you think that the Holocaust is history—that “the Jews” are crying over spilled milk—please try living with this man. Or as this man. As a child of survivors. Must I give details? Must I explain? I do not pretend to know what it is like to grow up Latino, Latina, African-American, Palestinian or Asian, in America. Please do not pretend to know what it is like to grow up Jewish, or to live with the legacy of the Holocaust. If we are to say that we should not compare suffering, please, let us not compare suffering, at the very least in the name of moving forward.

I am not saying that I am not struggling with, or am not disgusted by, various aspects of Judaism or Jewish culture, nor I am not defending anyone, I am not even disagreeing with the point of Kurian’s article; I am saying it is not, and will never be, so simple. I am saying: some of us are desperately trying to live up to our privilege, whatever that means. There are those of us who live with cognitive dissonance and guilt so complicated and so potent that the gut suffers. Some of “the Jews” attended PSM, and not as protesters. I am saying: please do not assume or attack me or my views (if I can sort them out) without hearing them or without trying to understand them first—and I will afford you the same respect; please do not invalidate my experiences or accomplishments. My father does a fine job of that on his own.

Talya Lieberman

Trinity ’07