At Tikkun Magazine, Laura Duane reflects on being an American Jew in Cairo while war raged in Gaza:
I can only to speak to what I know, and I know that the Jewish people have suffered—this is undeniable. Anti-Semitism still lurks in the dark corners of civilization, exemplified in the recent attack on the Holocaust museum in Washington, D.C., or by Reverend Jeremiah Wright’s comment that “them Jews” are responsible for President Obama leaving him behind. But, for such a beleaguered people, we are not always willing to acknowledge the suffering of others, a flaw that I have noticed in the larger community and in myself. It should not have taken a trip to the Middle East during a war to awaken me. It should not have taken the fear of people I respected. And while it’s hard for anyone to see past his own life experiences, his own people, or his own tribe, it is necessary for peace.
I found that it was easy to ignore the problematic side of Israeli action from afar, and difficult to support the war in Lebanon when the people it affected were the relatives of friends. Distance allows us the luxury of feigned ignorance, the ability to shut our eyes when the picture offends. The surest cure to this selective apathy is to work to bring home the essential humanity of all sides involved.
Laura Duane is a former editorial assistant for The Immanent Frame, and a regular contributor to here & there. Read the full essay, which was selected as one of the Top 12 entries to Tikkun’s Under 25 Writing Contest, here.