Ansky: No Israel without Judaism
Photo: Uri Elyahu
Removal of Dreyfus' rank
Picture: M. Meyer
'Israel is blind to anti-Semitism'
Actor Alex Ansky, currently performing in monodrama on Dreyfus affair, publishes booklet explaining relevance of modern anti-Semitism to youths attending his play
Israeli actor and radio presenter Alex Ansky has written a booklet on anti-Semitism as part of his role in Yehoshua Sobol's monodrama, 'I'm Not Dreyfus'. The booklet contains information on both the historic trial and modern-day anti-Semitism.
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One page of the booklet is devoted to global news reports on attacks of an anti-Semitic nature, such as that concerning Ilan Halimi, a 23-year old French Jew who was killed in Paris in 2006.
Halimi was abducted by a gang of young Muslim immigrants, who then tortured him over the course of nearly three weeks. He died of his extensive injuries days after being found tied naked to a tree.
Ansky said he had been shocked by the case. "The terrible circumstances of Halimi's abuse – just because he was a Jew – would not let me rest," he said.
"He was an intelligent and good-looking boy abused because of his race. I started to feel that we in Israel are living in a kind of blindness. I decided to do something – to attempt to understand the roots of this hatred. I wanted to get to know the point of view of the abuser, the hangman."
Shortly afterwards Ansky approached Sobol with the idea for the monodrama. They decided to reenact the Dreyfus affair from the point of view of the French officer Ferdinand Walsin-Esterhazy, the spy who was actually transferring information to the Germans. The play takes place during the last year of his life in London, 1923.
"The more we performed before young people the more we realized they don't understand how relevant anti-Semitism is today," Ansky said. "The booklet… lifts the veil and exposes what is really going on. The discussion it provokes opens up the debate on anti-Semitism and the significance of being Jewish or Israeli.
"There are usually many questions about the connection between the two identities. The booklet basically helps to understand that there is no Israeli identity without Judaism, and that Judaism is the only thing that justifies Israel's existence – the state of the Jewish people."
