Hating Jews in London

New play portrays Jews, Israelis in ridiculous light

Batya Melamed|Published: 04.20.06 , 17:57

Anti-Semitism in London? There’s nothing new in that, especially when we’re talking about the self-proclaimed enlightened liberal Left. But this time there’s an interesting twist in who’s behind the venture: None other than renowned film director Mike Leigh, the high culture superstar who directed such acclaimed works as Vera Drake, All or Nothing and Secrets and Lies.

Apparently Leigh has a new theatre play that has drawn thousands of enthusiastic spectators to the heart of the cultured mainstream of the West - London’s Royal National Theatre. Yet another episode in the old and familiar phenomenon of Jew-hating, which this time rears its head from under the patronage of Art, donning the costume of legitimacy and chic that is anti-Zionism.

Already some months ago British newspapers announced Leigh’s new play, “Two Thousand Years.” The play’s subject matter was a mystery until its premiere, which earned it the moniker “Mike Leigh’s secret.” The 16,000 tickets put up for sale were snatched up instantly and it has played sold out shows since its opening.

The plot is simple and in fact non-existent except as a loose frame on which to hang scenarios disparaging a middle-class Jewish family. The daughter is a serial peace activist (that’s to say: A well-educated girl who pleases her parents), but the son, may the All-merciful protect us, suddenly connects to his Jewish roots and even looks into the possibility of becoming religious (that’s to say: “He may even step into a synagogue and meet rabbis, God forbid. Where did we go wrong?)

I sat in the theatre and watched as the audience laughed gleefully whenever Israelis and Jews were presented in a ridiculous light. I heard them applaud the portrayal of a typical Jewish family as hysterical, guilt-ridden and self-hating. I witnessed hundreds of spectators allowing themselves to publicly snub moral precepts - the very same society that enabled the establishment of a Jewish nation through the criminal thievery of Palestinian territory.

You must either love someone fervently or hate them passionately to know them so well. And the British know us very well. It must be noted that Mike Leigh wrote the script based on the average British knowledge of every little nuance of our lives. There is absolutely no doubt that such a play couldn’t succeed in London if it depicted, for example, the history of the unfortunate Tutsi tribe, or the precise eating and worshipping habits of aborigines in Australia.

It turns out though, that despite the fact that there are a lot fewer Jews in the world than Tutsis, most citizens of the United Kingdom loath us so much that they even know exactly what the Hebrew phrase baruch hashem means, what putz means in Yiddish and what a Qassam is in Arabic.

In the event that someone isn’t hip to the terminology, the program has a dictionary that translates these important terms into English, as well as a brief history of “Two Thousand Years” of Jewish history according to Leigh’s choice of important dates, beginning with the Hasmonean empire and ending in the road map and the separation fence.

Among all this data hides the answer to Mike Leigh’s “secret”: Mike is Jewish. Yes, born in Manchester to a Jewish family, and even Zionist in its time – a detail that has gotten lost in the turmoil of his success and that doesn’t appear in most of his biographies. And why did he find it appropriate to reveal this embarrassing fact to the world specifically now? The answer can be found in the body of the play: Now, finally, it is possible and permissible (and in Britain today even desirable, enlightened and popular) to be a proud Israel-hating Jew.