As Anti-Semitism Soars, New Doc Draws on Life Lessons from Menachem Begin

By: Bruce Gould & Joe Charles

This year is the 40th anniversary commemorating the Camp David Peace Accords, which resulted in the historic peace treaty between Egypt and Israel. Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin took major political risks to secure a durable peace for which they received the Nobel Peace Prize.

Begin was both vilified and lionized by different sectors of Israeli and American society for entering into this peace treaty. His personal and political journey will be part of a well-researched and first-time documentary on his life, which will reach an American and worldwide audience in 2020.

The documentary is being made at a key point in time to recognize that a Muslim leader of the largest Arab state could develop both peace and friendship with the Jewish leader of the modern state of Israel, something that liberal-minded Arab thinkers are attempting to achieve again, today.

The Arab Council for Regional Integration held a closed-door conference in November, which focused on the need to engage with Israel, and stop the BDS movement, to help their people and further the Palestinian cause. Among those Arab leaders, was a familiar name – Anwar Sadat – the nephew of the President who struck the first peace deal with Israel in 1979. Mustafa el-Dessouki, one of the conferences main organizers, said “many Arabs — even, to his surprise, in Lebanon, a bitter Israeli enemy — ‘actually want to connect with Israelis.’”

But to achieve such peace, you need leaders willing to take political risk, which Sadat and Begin did. To read the secret letters and communications between these two leaders six months prior to President Carter even being aware of their interactions, underscores their desire to take the risk towards such an endeavor.

Another key reason to make an accurate and rich portrayal of Begin, who was such a unique and complex man, is to recognize the sinister increase in virulent anti-Semitism sweeping Europe and America. One of the forms it is taking is the spread of misinformation and outright lies on the Internet, in books, and in newsprint about Israel, its leaders, and the Jewish people.

There is also a tendency to portray Begin in a one-dimensional manner. Our research reveals that the prime minister, who served from 1977-1983, was much more than a right-wing member of Likud.

Extensive research found that every political decision Begin made was through the prism of his experience in his native Brest-Litovsk. As a teenager, he witnessed Jews mercilessly humiliated by anti-Semites. As an adult in Palestine he heard firsthand accounts of 600 Jews, being led by his father, who were marched out of Brest by the Nazis. As they walked, they sang Hatikva and were then taken to a local river and machine-gunned to death on its banks.

These experiences led Begin to make an ironclad vow to protect the honor and physical safety of all Jews. That is the fulcrum of this documentary.

His philosophy was to believe all threats made by enemies of Israel and of Jews in general, to be fearless and to use force if necessary. The message to Jews today is to ignore these threats, at our peril. One only needs to review current research and news coverage, or the lack of news coverage, of anti-Semitic acts in America, Europe, and the Middle East, which underscores the current threat to the Jewish people.

• Argentina witnessed a 107% increase in anti-Semitism according to a report by the DAIA, the country’s Jewish community umbrella organization. A concerning statistic in this report found that 61% agreed with anti-Semitic prejudice of the “influence” of Jews in the international markets.
• A Wall Street Journal article entitled “New Surge of Lethal Hatred” reported that unfiltered social media has pushed anti-Semitic tropes, long confined to the fringes, into the mainstream blaming of the Jews.
• A string of assaults and killings of Jews are both shocking and horrific.

o 2015 – Paris Kosher supermarket

o 2019 – 11 Jews killed in Tree of Life Synagogue, Pittsburgh

o 2019 – Jews killed at Poway, CA Chabad

• The Community Security Trust in the United Kingdom reports significant increase of anti-Semitic incidents over the past four years.
• Amazon and Facebook allow live streams by anti-Semitic terrorists.
• A 2017 German federal government report revealed that 40% of Germans hold modern anti-Semitic views. This study showed that nearly 33 million Germans – some 40% of the 82 million population – are infected with contemporary anti-Semitism. They agreed with the following statement, “Based on Israel’s policies, I can understand people having something against the Jews.”
• The Palestinian policy of paying the families of terrorists who kill Jews, “pay to slay”, is supported by the European Union Commission’s funding of the Palestinian Authority to the tune of over two billion Euros.

Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi tells us, that “only in Israel and nowhere else is the injunction to remember felt as a religious imperative.” Former Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom, Jonathan Sacks, stated that the retelling of a nation’s history becomes an obligation of every citizen. The Jewish people are a nation of storytellers.

We are creating this documentary in that spirit. In telling the story of Menachem Begin, we are sharing important life lessons of who we are, who our ancestors are, and who we hope to become.

Rabbi Sacks further commented, “storytelling is the great vehicle of moral education. It was the Torah’s insight that a people who told their children the story of freedom and its responsibilities would stay free as long as humankind lives, breathes, and hopes.”

Finally, “story gives a group a shared identity and a sense of purpose. It is through narrative that we begin to learn who we are, and how we are called on to behave.”

Telling the story of Menachem Begin’s life will reveal a man who experienced terrible sacrifice and great courage. He was a man of utmost humility and morality. This documentary will inform, educate, and inspire.

 

About the Authors:

Bruce Gould was a principal of Gould Publications Inc., a family-owned publishing business specializing in law books and treatises for the legal and law enforcement communities. At the time of its sale in 2004, the business was one of the leading statutory law book publishers in the country. His philanthropic work is extensive. He is a past Vice President of the Jewish Community Center of Greater Orlando. For more than 20 years, he has served in various roles for the Jewish National Fund, currently serving as the National Vice President of Campaign and President Elect. In addition, he had the privilege of giving the lead naming gift for both a new Amphitheater and a Commemoration Hall at Ammunition Hill in Jerusalem. Currently, he is leading a campaign to build a new Holocaust Museum for Hope and Humanity in Orlando Florida, and is a producer on the Menachem Begin documentary film. In his free time, he enjoys biking and has completed a 300-mile bike ride across Israel and bikes in many other countries. Gould holds a BA from New York University, a JD from Touro College Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, and an LLM from New York University School of Law.

Joe Charles has earned his multifaceted background that spans the worlds of entertainment, sports, and private client services. Currently a Senior Vice President and insurance specialist, Charles plays a leading role in growing the firm’s presence in the sports and entertainment industries. Prior to joining Alliant, Charles was CEO and Principal of a New York-based, full-service insurance brokerage and risk management firm. He also has experience overseeing the sports and entertainment divisions of several regional brokerage firms. Over the years, Charles has enjoyed coaching youth soccer, basketball and baseball. Charles holds a bachelor’s degree in marketing from Dominican College of Blauvelt, NY.