I am very jet lagged having just arrived in L.A. after that long flight from London. In California the sun is shining, my family are well and even my lap top is working properly! The last time I was here, about 6 months before the sub-prime banking situation unrolled I wrote articles about what was happening, warning of an impending financial disaster of epic proportion. I discussed this with European bankers, economists and political friends, but the size of the financial tsunami wasn’t truly grasped by an of them. I think it still has not been understood. If our leaders deal with this firmly and immediately it can be kept to a recession that we can come out of in a year or two, but if it’s not managed we could tip over into a full blown depression not seen since the last world war. They are still talking about doing the right things, but are not yet doing them.
People in the USA seem, on first sight to have the same problems and worries that exist in Europe. The recession is biting. Prices on a variety of items are going up. Values of housing are going down. Businesses are not paying bills as fast as they should or they were. The results are obvious, individuals and organisations that operated nearer to the margins are going bust. People are cutting back, even here in LA there are all the signs of nervousness, and it’s in a more advanced stage of economic downtown with a seemingly steeper angle of decline.
Projecting just a little bit forward it’s a near certainty that the geographic locations that profited the most in the property driven price explosion offered by sub-prime finance will suffer the most disastrous falls. Florida and California are these places and the chickens are already coming home to roost. Within an hour or two of arrival I was told of a friend who had purchased a desirable residence at auction, previously valued at $800,000 he got the place for a little under half!
So, for every loser in a slump there are those who gain. There is an old adage that states, when America sneezes the rest of the world gets a cold. Well, to me its evident that America has a cold, does this mean we’re all going to suffer pneumonia?
Already the leaders of the world’s richest economies, the G7, have been meeting to figure out ways that they might meet this challenge. They’re applying pressure on the big financial institutions to keep money flowing but they are doing too little too late. The big banks who were all more than ready to profit from the sub prime bubble, easy credit that got us to this situation seem unwilling to do anything to help get us out of the hole their greed helped create. They are going to have to be made to do so, today, as tomorrow could be too late.
It isn’t yet a disaster for the general world economy, but we’re near the precipice.
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Still Fighting
There are very few openly pro Jewish and pro Israel politicians in the UK. There are many in the USA. Is this because there are too few Jews in the UK to count politically whereas there is a critical mass of more than 6 million Jewish people in America, not afraid to make themselves clearly heard? Or, could it be, there are many non-Jewish people who would take a Philo Semitic stance based on the facts, but are scared to do so in the UK as there are perceived to be a very voluble contrary group here, namely the Muslim community?
Many people are terribly afraid to defend Israel especially when it’s been hard to do so against a rising current of hate and vitriol.
Recently there had been more than a whiff of anti-Semitism in the way some members of Britain’s Labour party had described leading Conservative and Jewish politicians Michael Howard and Oliver Letwin, particularly in their printed material.
There has recently been major political debate about Britain’s faith schools. The point has been made that Islamic schools should employ a more inclusive curriculum, taught in English as Jewish faith schools do. Of course Islamic schools could teach prayers in Arabic just as Jewish schools teach their prayers in Hebrew.
There is in Britain a commonly accepted perception amongst Jewish people that there was and remains a lack of impartiality at the BBC where it concerns Israel. Whilst we all recognise that there is some desire among certain areas of the Corporation’s leadership to correct this imbalance there is a long way to travel before our desire for the BBC’s impartial destination is reached.
We shall shortly be celebrating Israel’s 60th birthday and all those who have fallen to defend her. It is amazing how much this little country has achieved in that short time, and despite all the odds against it. We can all be proud of Israel and her people. They have done remarkably well in almost impossible conditions.
Despite this the British academics again seek to sever connections with Israel’s universities. Of course this ban is abhorrent to any right thinking person. How can anyone protect the right of the Palestinians by taking away the rights of academic congress with Israel? Even Palestinian academics have argued against this ban and were joined by every British newspaper. Even normally anti Israel papers such as the Independent have been firm in their rejection of this ban,
Ask yourself how this ban would be communicated if Israel were really ostracised. You wouldn’t be able to do so without Israeli technology in your mobile phone, nor would you be able to send an email since the processor in your computer is likely to have been designed in Israel, and a great many other technologies were produced in Israel and so on. Who loses if Israel were ever cut off from this country? Probably this country.
This type of ban and the logic for it has no basis in reality. What it’s really about is anti-Zionism and it borders on anti-Semitism. Does anyone seriously believe the spurious reasoning behind this ban? If they were then why is there no ban on academic centres in countries like China for what they did and still do in Tibet or Tiananmen Square. How about Iran, Syria, Egypt, Zimbabwe, Burma and thirty or forty other countries for their abuses of human rights, torture, arrest without trial etc?
We deal with insidious anti-Semitism posing as anti-Zionism all the time. I make it my business to fight it wherever it appears. It is awful that I have to report that this situation is worsening all the time. You would be upset and perhaps as horrified as me to witness this in all its abhorrent forms. Suffice it to say students are being victimised and bullied purely because they are Jewish. I have received threats, and I am not alone, for having the temerity to state that there is another point of view.
Even some Student Unions have joined in this behaviour resulting in a wide variety of insults, physical assaults, threats and intimidation. Remember I am not talking about pre-war Berlin, but present day Britain.
It seems to me that there is a direct correlation between extreme Islamic radical student groups; a hard left union agenda and unreasoning, unceasing and total hatred of anything Israeli. Presently there is some potential for a peace deal in the Middle East. Even some hard line terrorist groups have ceased, albeit begrudgingly and temporarily, attacking Israel; but not the AUT. They choose now to continue their attacks on Israel. What it means is that Israel can never do right in their eyes. There really does appear to be two sets of rules, one for every other country and another for Israel. In addition one feels compelled to ask if the overt racism being experienced by Jewish people in the UK today, particularly in our university campuses would be acceptable if visited on any other racial group. Sadly we know the answer. We have to put a stop to this.
Three hundred and fifty years in this country and we are still fighting.
Many people are terribly afraid to defend Israel especially when it’s been hard to do so against a rising current of hate and vitriol.
Recently there had been more than a whiff of anti-Semitism in the way some members of Britain’s Labour party had described leading Conservative and Jewish politicians Michael Howard and Oliver Letwin, particularly in their printed material.
There has recently been major political debate about Britain’s faith schools. The point has been made that Islamic schools should employ a more inclusive curriculum, taught in English as Jewish faith schools do. Of course Islamic schools could teach prayers in Arabic just as Jewish schools teach their prayers in Hebrew.
There is in Britain a commonly accepted perception amongst Jewish people that there was and remains a lack of impartiality at the BBC where it concerns Israel. Whilst we all recognise that there is some desire among certain areas of the Corporation’s leadership to correct this imbalance there is a long way to travel before our desire for the BBC’s impartial destination is reached.
We shall shortly be celebrating Israel’s 60th birthday and all those who have fallen to defend her. It is amazing how much this little country has achieved in that short time, and despite all the odds against it. We can all be proud of Israel and her people. They have done remarkably well in almost impossible conditions.
Despite this the British academics again seek to sever connections with Israel’s universities. Of course this ban is abhorrent to any right thinking person. How can anyone protect the right of the Palestinians by taking away the rights of academic congress with Israel? Even Palestinian academics have argued against this ban and were joined by every British newspaper. Even normally anti Israel papers such as the Independent have been firm in their rejection of this ban,
Ask yourself how this ban would be communicated if Israel were really ostracised. You wouldn’t be able to do so without Israeli technology in your mobile phone, nor would you be able to send an email since the processor in your computer is likely to have been designed in Israel, and a great many other technologies were produced in Israel and so on. Who loses if Israel were ever cut off from this country? Probably this country.
This type of ban and the logic for it has no basis in reality. What it’s really about is anti-Zionism and it borders on anti-Semitism. Does anyone seriously believe the spurious reasoning behind this ban? If they were then why is there no ban on academic centres in countries like China for what they did and still do in Tibet or Tiananmen Square. How about Iran, Syria, Egypt, Zimbabwe, Burma and thirty or forty other countries for their abuses of human rights, torture, arrest without trial etc?
We deal with insidious anti-Semitism posing as anti-Zionism all the time. I make it my business to fight it wherever it appears. It is awful that I have to report that this situation is worsening all the time. You would be upset and perhaps as horrified as me to witness this in all its abhorrent forms. Suffice it to say students are being victimised and bullied purely because they are Jewish. I have received threats, and I am not alone, for having the temerity to state that there is another point of view.
Even some Student Unions have joined in this behaviour resulting in a wide variety of insults, physical assaults, threats and intimidation. Remember I am not talking about pre-war Berlin, but present day Britain.
It seems to me that there is a direct correlation between extreme Islamic radical student groups; a hard left union agenda and unreasoning, unceasing and total hatred of anything Israeli. Presently there is some potential for a peace deal in the Middle East. Even some hard line terrorist groups have ceased, albeit begrudgingly and temporarily, attacking Israel; but not the AUT. They choose now to continue their attacks on Israel. What it means is that Israel can never do right in their eyes. There really does appear to be two sets of rules, one for every other country and another for Israel. In addition one feels compelled to ask if the overt racism being experienced by Jewish people in the UK today, particularly in our university campuses would be acceptable if visited on any other racial group. Sadly we know the answer. We have to put a stop to this.
Three hundred and fifty years in this country and we are still fighting.
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Being a Liberal
Liberally Jewish
Most of you reading this blog are not Jewish, in fact, for sure, the majority of the group reading this are not Liberal Jews, the group I take pride in belonging to. Some call this Jewish lite. I am not a religious person. I am what I was born into, racially and tribally Jewish, but not a believer in a man or woman with flowing robes on a mountain top, bearded or otherwise. For me if there is a deity it is the good within us all, and the Devil might be the opposite.
Liberal Judaism in the UK has about ten or eleven thousand official adherents. We are small enough a group to be both vertically and horizontally integrated but big enough to be a pain in everyone else’s ideological butt.
I want to see our World being full of love and good people, even when sometimes the logic tells us that the glass is half empty. We need to steer our movement through what promises to be uncharted territory, unlike what has gone before.
There is a common theme running through recent Jewish and Israeli history. This is that there are many terrible and unrelenting enemies of us as Jews, and Israel as a nation. I don’t want to rehearse all the well-trodden paths that most of you are aware of. I will just mention three recent happenings.
During the French riots there have been a very large number of anti-Semitic attacks that both the French Government and the official Jewish representative bodies deny are linked.
The next major incident I want you to consider took place in Bulgaria, a country that very recently joined the European Union. One of their major elected parties publicly stated that their country needed to rid itself of all its Jews. It then went on to list fifteen hundred Bulgarian Jews and their addresses on their web site. The message was clear, here they are, go and get them.
Last and by no means least there is the infamous speech by the President of Iran calling for Israel to be wiped off the map. Imagine how the world would react if a Jewish or Israeli leader called for an Islamic state to be wiped out just because it was Islamic?
When I was getting married many years ago my good friend, Rabbi Lew, told me he would like to see me more at our shaul, then in Dean Street, Central London. It was orthodox and I was the third generation of Klinger who was a member. I felt somewhat embarrassed to tell him that I felt a terrible hypocrite to arrive at the synagogue having to drive because of the distance, and then discreetly park my car. He responded by saying that he wasn’t the Lord’s policeman, but he would like to see me. It struck me as a common sense that the Almighty might well applaud.
I suppose that kind of reasoning is what brought me to Liberal Judaism. Faith coloured by common sense and a feeling for the times we live in. I believe that you will see Liberal Judaism begin to really grow in numbers and vigour. I also believe that as a paradoxical defensive reflex the ultra orthodox movement will grow even faster and bigger in the Diaspora. The real squeeze will be on the former middle ground conformists whose assimilation into a larger heterogeneous society will make them vanish. Their beliefs will result in their own demise. How can they live with the moral dichotomy of their children “marrying out” if they are not inclusive of their grand children?
I believe Liberal Judaism will continue to succeed in exporting its message of inclusiveness; involvement and engagement to the wider, surrounding community and that this will grow and prosper.
Statistics suggests that the British United synagogue membership (similar to the American Conservative movement) is fairly static, Reform numbers are in the doldrums in many respects but the Charedi is growing very fast. It has the high birth rate, the fundamental belief, and seemingly the answers that gets recruits. It looks as though these ultra orthodox people that some consider a throwback to life in Middle Europe in the nineteenth century, might well number between 20 to 40% of all those in the UK who consider themselves Jewish.
This brings one neatly to the other side of this argument. This is really the problem, the very large and increasing number of Jews who don’t count themselves as Jewish. Those that don’t belong to or contribute in any way to any branch of organized Judaism. The folks that might just join a synagogue when they’re getting a bit older and they start to think about not being buried in a Jewish piece of consecrated ground. What a great shame that they only want to be Jewish when they’re dead!
I think that we in Liberal Judaism can, does and should continue to reach out, to reclaim some living Jewish life from people who might yet welcome some of our warmth, our Jewishness, our love. There’s just the chance that being positive will find a receptive audience with a great many people who are looking to place themselves back in the bosom of their faith. Let’s welcome them home, it’s warm inside.
Most of you reading this blog are not Jewish, in fact, for sure, the majority of the group reading this are not Liberal Jews, the group I take pride in belonging to. Some call this Jewish lite. I am not a religious person. I am what I was born into, racially and tribally Jewish, but not a believer in a man or woman with flowing robes on a mountain top, bearded or otherwise. For me if there is a deity it is the good within us all, and the Devil might be the opposite.
Liberal Judaism in the UK has about ten or eleven thousand official adherents. We are small enough a group to be both vertically and horizontally integrated but big enough to be a pain in everyone else’s ideological butt.
I want to see our World being full of love and good people, even when sometimes the logic tells us that the glass is half empty. We need to steer our movement through what promises to be uncharted territory, unlike what has gone before.
There is a common theme running through recent Jewish and Israeli history. This is that there are many terrible and unrelenting enemies of us as Jews, and Israel as a nation. I don’t want to rehearse all the well-trodden paths that most of you are aware of. I will just mention three recent happenings.
During the French riots there have been a very large number of anti-Semitic attacks that both the French Government and the official Jewish representative bodies deny are linked.
The next major incident I want you to consider took place in Bulgaria, a country that very recently joined the European Union. One of their major elected parties publicly stated that their country needed to rid itself of all its Jews. It then went on to list fifteen hundred Bulgarian Jews and their addresses on their web site. The message was clear, here they are, go and get them.
Last and by no means least there is the infamous speech by the President of Iran calling for Israel to be wiped off the map. Imagine how the world would react if a Jewish or Israeli leader called for an Islamic state to be wiped out just because it was Islamic?
When I was getting married many years ago my good friend, Rabbi Lew, told me he would like to see me more at our shaul, then in Dean Street, Central London. It was orthodox and I was the third generation of Klinger who was a member. I felt somewhat embarrassed to tell him that I felt a terrible hypocrite to arrive at the synagogue having to drive because of the distance, and then discreetly park my car. He responded by saying that he wasn’t the Lord’s policeman, but he would like to see me. It struck me as a common sense that the Almighty might well applaud.
I suppose that kind of reasoning is what brought me to Liberal Judaism. Faith coloured by common sense and a feeling for the times we live in. I believe that you will see Liberal Judaism begin to really grow in numbers and vigour. I also believe that as a paradoxical defensive reflex the ultra orthodox movement will grow even faster and bigger in the Diaspora. The real squeeze will be on the former middle ground conformists whose assimilation into a larger heterogeneous society will make them vanish. Their beliefs will result in their own demise. How can they live with the moral dichotomy of their children “marrying out” if they are not inclusive of their grand children?
I believe Liberal Judaism will continue to succeed in exporting its message of inclusiveness; involvement and engagement to the wider, surrounding community and that this will grow and prosper.
Statistics suggests that the British United synagogue membership (similar to the American Conservative movement) is fairly static, Reform numbers are in the doldrums in many respects but the Charedi is growing very fast. It has the high birth rate, the fundamental belief, and seemingly the answers that gets recruits. It looks as though these ultra orthodox people that some consider a throwback to life in Middle Europe in the nineteenth century, might well number between 20 to 40% of all those in the UK who consider themselves Jewish.
This brings one neatly to the other side of this argument. This is really the problem, the very large and increasing number of Jews who don’t count themselves as Jewish. Those that don’t belong to or contribute in any way to any branch of organized Judaism. The folks that might just join a synagogue when they’re getting a bit older and they start to think about not being buried in a Jewish piece of consecrated ground. What a great shame that they only want to be Jewish when they’re dead!
I think that we in Liberal Judaism can, does and should continue to reach out, to reclaim some living Jewish life from people who might yet welcome some of our warmth, our Jewishness, our love. There’s just the chance that being positive will find a receptive audience with a great many people who are looking to place themselves back in the bosom of their faith. Let’s welcome them home, it’s warm inside.
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Chocolate Drops for Dogs
Travel used to be fun. It has become progressively less like fun, and more like punishment with every passing year. Here are just a few incidents that stand out in my mind demonstrating how things have changed. They don’t necessarily show all was sweetness and light, but at least you didn’t get shot for making a joke.
My friend Mike was returning to the States, where he had moved. The Customs man asked to see inside his bag and found a tin of “Good Boy Chocolate Drops For Dogs”. The officer raised the tin and asked Mike what the can contained, “Good Boy Chocolate Drops for Dogs.” Mike responded, “And, what exactly, are they?” the man enquired with great suspicion, Mike responded that they were “Chocolate drops for my pet dog;” quite reasonably, as this is what they were. The man was not happy and he asked again, “And what precisely are good boy chocolate drop for dogs?” Mike then made the fatal mistake of presuming that somewhere within the uniform lurked a human being, “I’ll tell you what officer, if you’re a good boy I’ll give you one.”
After Mike was arrested it was only a few hours before the confusion was cleared up and the innocent dog treats were returned from the laboratory.
There was the time I was walking through the customs and immigration at New Jersey airport with my friend, who I shall call Henry Cohen. We were talking and then I turned to ask him something as we were both at the barriers but he had vanished. It was only later, after we had both been thoroughly questioned that we discovered the reason for this separation. Both of us had lived and worked legally in the States and returned to the UK after a few years. Apparently it was unheard of for Brits like us to do this and therefore we were suspicious. It was a lot worse for Henry than me. I was simply locked in a white room and placed under a little pressure to see if my story of having moved back to Blighty checked out. Henry received a telephone call to his otherwise empty locked room. He picked it up and a voice introduced himself as an Internal Revenue officer of the Federal Government. The officer asked Henry if his name was Henry Albert Cohen, to which he responded that this was his name. The officer then accused Henry of not paying due taxes in the period between his leaving the States and the day of his arrest. Henry tried to persuade the officer that he no longer lived in the States and therefore wasn’t due to pay any tax. The officer wouldn’t listen and went on to tell Henry that as these taxes were estimate to be in the region of $600,000 they had confiscated his home in Phoenix, Arizona as a penalty. Something stopped Henry saying the obvious thing, which was that he had never owned a house in Arizona, because he just wanted to get out of the place. I remember a phone call from Henry’s jail cell in which he was advised to say yes to anything just to be able to get out of the place. They did release him and he flew back to the UK as fast as the big bird would fly him home. Eventually the authorities admitted that neither of us had done anything wrong, but as ever, the presumption had been we must have done so. I guess we just didn’t fit the pattern.
Another two occasions were linked. Again my friend Mike was involved. We were taking our small film crew, him, me and one other, down to the Cannes film festival. We didn’t have much money so we were using my car and a rented caravan to get to the South of France and carry all our equipment. Knowing the French were very officious we were careful to obtain all the carnets and proper documentation to clear through customs. It took a few weeks of running around and filling in forms but eventually we were ready to run the gauntlet. The English customs first checked we had all the necessary papers before we got on the ferry at Dover. We then sailed and were blissfully aware of the trouble to come. On landing the French customs asked to see the various color carnets for our film, camera and sound equipment, transport which we were able to show with great alacrity. They then asked for our orange carnet. This was the one color in the rainbow we didn’t have. I tried, in my best French to enquire what was the purpose of this hitherto unknown carnet. I was told it was to prevent us selling our hired equipment and leaving it in France as an illegal import.
This being a Sunday it proved impossible to get anyone from the British government authorities to explain to their French counterparts that we didn’t own the equipment and would vouch we couldn’t or wouldn’t try to sell it. The French came up with a Gallic compromise. If we were to provide a Bond for about $100,000 they would forego the additional carnet. It’s also pretty difficult to obtain a bond on a weekend when you can’t reach anyone on the telephone from a French customs hall in a remote port. Much as we tried the best we were able to do was obtain a promise from friends at home that they would do as was necessary first thing the next day. In the meantime the French authorities locked our caravan up in their customs hall, which meant we had to go and sleep without our beds or food, both in the caravan, on the side of the road outside of town.
The next morning we were able to generate the bond and release our goods and we then went on to make our film. About four weeks later we were on our way home. We stopped on the road overlooking the port, determined not to suffer any more with the French authorities. We decided to wait until the last possible moment before the ship sailed and drive at top speed onto the ferry. We executed the maneuver perfectly, arriving on board with screeching brakes, as the sailors were about to pull away from the harbor.
We were young, and easily impressed with our bravado as we sat in the bar and toasted our small victory. On arriving at Dover the British customs officer asked us if we had anything to declare. We answered in the negative but something made my colleague say, “except for the heroin in the lighting equipment.” before he finished with this poor joke the officer was ordering the stripping down of our vehicle. It was a great many hours later before we could arrange a garage to help us re-assemble the vehicle and we could leave.
For some reason my name seems to crop up on every computer when it comes to security checks. I don’t think my middle aged, middle European look could be the reason, so I checked out why I always get stopped with a friend in the security world. He came back with the response that the only reason he could discover was that there had been a female German terrorist with a similar name many years ago and that this triggered the computer programs to check me out. Every time they tell anyone to take off their shoes I am included, and every time they want to look up any spare orifice I am selected. Perhaps I have the look of the gender reassigned?
This all reached a crescendo when I was traveling back from LA to London a couple of years ago. I had received a hard earned upgrade to business class and was one of the first to walk down the jet ramp. I was just about to enter the plane when four huge security guys encircled me. Perhaps memory makes them so big, but they were jumbo size, wearing aviator shades and guns at the hip, short sleeve button down shirts and don’t mess with me attitude all over their faces. They were scary guys. The pack leader looked me in the eye and asked, “What has been the purpose of your trip to the States?” “Business.” I responded. “I’ll ask you again, what was the purpose of your trip?” Now I was feeling a bit nervous, so I slightly adjusted my response, “”Well I did see some family and friends, so there was some pleasure as well.” He sneered a bit to his colleagues as the other passengers walked past me, looking at us as if I were a senior terrorist. The officers ushered me to the other end of the walkway, where no one could overlook us. “What would I find if we were to look under your right trouser leg?” “My right ankle.” I responded with a clear grasp of my anatomical realities. “I shall ask you again, have you anything unusual on your right ankle?” I now realized they were looking for a man, who must have many similarities to me, plus something odd about his right ankle. I thought about it for a moment and bent to roll up my trouser leg but was halted in this purpose when the officer shifted nervously. I got the impression that if I didn’t do this satisfactorily I was about to get jumped on by four very big men carrying enough guns for a small war. I rolled up my trouser leg and everyone, including me, had a good look. There it was, one pale, slightly hairy leg, with no unusual markings. The atmosphere immediately lifted, “thank you sir.” He said with a big smile, “have a nice flight.” I rejoined the other passengers who were still viewing me as if my surname was Bin Laden.
So traveling has long had its complications, and this remains the case. Remember the cardinal rule, don’t make jokes with the customs and immigration officer, they have no sense of humor. Or perhaps just don’t travel with me!
My friend Mike was returning to the States, where he had moved. The Customs man asked to see inside his bag and found a tin of “Good Boy Chocolate Drops For Dogs”. The officer raised the tin and asked Mike what the can contained, “Good Boy Chocolate Drops for Dogs.” Mike responded, “And, what exactly, are they?” the man enquired with great suspicion, Mike responded that they were “Chocolate drops for my pet dog;” quite reasonably, as this is what they were. The man was not happy and he asked again, “And what precisely are good boy chocolate drop for dogs?” Mike then made the fatal mistake of presuming that somewhere within the uniform lurked a human being, “I’ll tell you what officer, if you’re a good boy I’ll give you one.”
After Mike was arrested it was only a few hours before the confusion was cleared up and the innocent dog treats were returned from the laboratory.
There was the time I was walking through the customs and immigration at New Jersey airport with my friend, who I shall call Henry Cohen. We were talking and then I turned to ask him something as we were both at the barriers but he had vanished. It was only later, after we had both been thoroughly questioned that we discovered the reason for this separation. Both of us had lived and worked legally in the States and returned to the UK after a few years. Apparently it was unheard of for Brits like us to do this and therefore we were suspicious. It was a lot worse for Henry than me. I was simply locked in a white room and placed under a little pressure to see if my story of having moved back to Blighty checked out. Henry received a telephone call to his otherwise empty locked room. He picked it up and a voice introduced himself as an Internal Revenue officer of the Federal Government. The officer asked Henry if his name was Henry Albert Cohen, to which he responded that this was his name. The officer then accused Henry of not paying due taxes in the period between his leaving the States and the day of his arrest. Henry tried to persuade the officer that he no longer lived in the States and therefore wasn’t due to pay any tax. The officer wouldn’t listen and went on to tell Henry that as these taxes were estimate to be in the region of $600,000 they had confiscated his home in Phoenix, Arizona as a penalty. Something stopped Henry saying the obvious thing, which was that he had never owned a house in Arizona, because he just wanted to get out of the place. I remember a phone call from Henry’s jail cell in which he was advised to say yes to anything just to be able to get out of the place. They did release him and he flew back to the UK as fast as the big bird would fly him home. Eventually the authorities admitted that neither of us had done anything wrong, but as ever, the presumption had been we must have done so. I guess we just didn’t fit the pattern.
Another two occasions were linked. Again my friend Mike was involved. We were taking our small film crew, him, me and one other, down to the Cannes film festival. We didn’t have much money so we were using my car and a rented caravan to get to the South of France and carry all our equipment. Knowing the French were very officious we were careful to obtain all the carnets and proper documentation to clear through customs. It took a few weeks of running around and filling in forms but eventually we were ready to run the gauntlet. The English customs first checked we had all the necessary papers before we got on the ferry at Dover. We then sailed and were blissfully aware of the trouble to come. On landing the French customs asked to see the various color carnets for our film, camera and sound equipment, transport which we were able to show with great alacrity. They then asked for our orange carnet. This was the one color in the rainbow we didn’t have. I tried, in my best French to enquire what was the purpose of this hitherto unknown carnet. I was told it was to prevent us selling our hired equipment and leaving it in France as an illegal import.
This being a Sunday it proved impossible to get anyone from the British government authorities to explain to their French counterparts that we didn’t own the equipment and would vouch we couldn’t or wouldn’t try to sell it. The French came up with a Gallic compromise. If we were to provide a Bond for about $100,000 they would forego the additional carnet. It’s also pretty difficult to obtain a bond on a weekend when you can’t reach anyone on the telephone from a French customs hall in a remote port. Much as we tried the best we were able to do was obtain a promise from friends at home that they would do as was necessary first thing the next day. In the meantime the French authorities locked our caravan up in their customs hall, which meant we had to go and sleep without our beds or food, both in the caravan, on the side of the road outside of town.
The next morning we were able to generate the bond and release our goods and we then went on to make our film. About four weeks later we were on our way home. We stopped on the road overlooking the port, determined not to suffer any more with the French authorities. We decided to wait until the last possible moment before the ship sailed and drive at top speed onto the ferry. We executed the maneuver perfectly, arriving on board with screeching brakes, as the sailors were about to pull away from the harbor.
We were young, and easily impressed with our bravado as we sat in the bar and toasted our small victory. On arriving at Dover the British customs officer asked us if we had anything to declare. We answered in the negative but something made my colleague say, “except for the heroin in the lighting equipment.” before he finished with this poor joke the officer was ordering the stripping down of our vehicle. It was a great many hours later before we could arrange a garage to help us re-assemble the vehicle and we could leave.
For some reason my name seems to crop up on every computer when it comes to security checks. I don’t think my middle aged, middle European look could be the reason, so I checked out why I always get stopped with a friend in the security world. He came back with the response that the only reason he could discover was that there had been a female German terrorist with a similar name many years ago and that this triggered the computer programs to check me out. Every time they tell anyone to take off their shoes I am included, and every time they want to look up any spare orifice I am selected. Perhaps I have the look of the gender reassigned?
This all reached a crescendo when I was traveling back from LA to London a couple of years ago. I had received a hard earned upgrade to business class and was one of the first to walk down the jet ramp. I was just about to enter the plane when four huge security guys encircled me. Perhaps memory makes them so big, but they were jumbo size, wearing aviator shades and guns at the hip, short sleeve button down shirts and don’t mess with me attitude all over their faces. They were scary guys. The pack leader looked me in the eye and asked, “What has been the purpose of your trip to the States?” “Business.” I responded. “I’ll ask you again, what was the purpose of your trip?” Now I was feeling a bit nervous, so I slightly adjusted my response, “”Well I did see some family and friends, so there was some pleasure as well.” He sneered a bit to his colleagues as the other passengers walked past me, looking at us as if I were a senior terrorist. The officers ushered me to the other end of the walkway, where no one could overlook us. “What would I find if we were to look under your right trouser leg?” “My right ankle.” I responded with a clear grasp of my anatomical realities. “I shall ask you again, have you anything unusual on your right ankle?” I now realized they were looking for a man, who must have many similarities to me, plus something odd about his right ankle. I thought about it for a moment and bent to roll up my trouser leg but was halted in this purpose when the officer shifted nervously. I got the impression that if I didn’t do this satisfactorily I was about to get jumped on by four very big men carrying enough guns for a small war. I rolled up my trouser leg and everyone, including me, had a good look. There it was, one pale, slightly hairy leg, with no unusual markings. The atmosphere immediately lifted, “thank you sir.” He said with a big smile, “have a nice flight.” I rejoined the other passengers who were still viewing me as if my surname was Bin Laden.
So traveling has long had its complications, and this remains the case. Remember the cardinal rule, don’t make jokes with the customs and immigration officer, they have no sense of humor. Or perhaps just don’t travel with me!
Monday, April 14, 2008
Another BRIC in the Wall
What is the BRIC? It is the acronym for the four big, new economically surging power countries, the future super powers. They are Brazil, Russia, India and China. Here I am about to argue that despite economic arguments in their favor, I don’t agree that they should already be considered in this category.
All four of these countries have been growing into powerhouses throughout the latest period of global growth. Now they, like the first world, face a different scenario. In this new situation we all face decreasing growth, and maybe even a sustained recession. My bet is that we are going to have to face the latter, and if this is mishandled, it could be a whole lot worse.
There are reasons for these countries to have been doing so well during the last ten years of growth. The first world’s boom was built on explosive consumerism and the BRIC economies supplied those needs, be that the manufacturing capacity of the Chinese or the raw materials, like oil and gas of the Russians or the call centers and technological services of India. Without such need there is a concomitant decrease in demand.
There are other, bigger reasons for the problems that lay ahead for these economies and they are less obvious, but perhaps even more pertinent. Chief amongst these problems is the lack of democracy in China. How can there be economic freedom in a society lacking political and personal freedom? I am unable to name any country from history in which this has been sustained. From history you can predict the future with almost total certainty. China, in its present form, cannot be a long-term economic power. Something will have to give.
Like many others I am horrified by how the Chinese Government is treating Tibet. However it is not their behavior that surprises me. What is really shocking is how their Ministers appear on television without the self -realization that the rest of the world is horrified. Like all totalitarian regimes they are unable to see themselves in the global mirror. It is an unworkable dichotomy to imagine you can have a fault line within a country that promotes central control for all things except aspects of business. In fact, the truth is that freedom in business demands a great deal of freedom in society. The Chinese bureaucracy is almost certainly an unintended invitation to widespread endemic corruption. If there are vast riches to be gained, and they come through a state controlled tap then the controller of that tap is going to become seriously rich and powerful. Long term there is a fault line in this economic model so wide that the resulting earthquake could damage our whole world when it blows.
India is a different story. It is the biggest democracy in the world, but it is not an efficient democracy working like anything we know in the western world. It is no worse for this except where it comes to long-term efficiencies. Although there is a growing middle class in India, there are also huge social inequalities and almost feudal social economics in play. This model can work if there is continual growth in wealth, which takes everyone’s collective mind off their plight in other areas. Again, India, like China, is going to suffer huge growing pains that could well result in massive social upheaval and this might lead to breakdowns in the present social order.
Home grown consumerism can ameliorate the damage this inevitable changing of gears will cause as the world economy shudders into neutral, perhaps reverse, but it won’t make it vanish.
Brazil and Russia both have some similarities to each other. They each possess large populations of able and dexterous people but above all they are rich in resources. The Russians are prepared to bully anyone that doesn’t meet their price but that can backfire badly when the boot is on the other foot and economies contract. Some people regard Brazil as being almost ungovernable. Russia is now governed by their new Tsar, Mister Putin and has become a giant and corrupt oligarchy that he controls. It is a gangster state.
Will these BRIC economic tigers prosper, or is their flame going to flicker and die? My belief is that they are going to have to reform or they will inevitably fail in the longer term. We should do all we can to help them succeed in this process for the benefit of us all.
All four of these countries have been growing into powerhouses throughout the latest period of global growth. Now they, like the first world, face a different scenario. In this new situation we all face decreasing growth, and maybe even a sustained recession. My bet is that we are going to have to face the latter, and if this is mishandled, it could be a whole lot worse.
There are reasons for these countries to have been doing so well during the last ten years of growth. The first world’s boom was built on explosive consumerism and the BRIC economies supplied those needs, be that the manufacturing capacity of the Chinese or the raw materials, like oil and gas of the Russians or the call centers and technological services of India. Without such need there is a concomitant decrease in demand.
There are other, bigger reasons for the problems that lay ahead for these economies and they are less obvious, but perhaps even more pertinent. Chief amongst these problems is the lack of democracy in China. How can there be economic freedom in a society lacking political and personal freedom? I am unable to name any country from history in which this has been sustained. From history you can predict the future with almost total certainty. China, in its present form, cannot be a long-term economic power. Something will have to give.
Like many others I am horrified by how the Chinese Government is treating Tibet. However it is not their behavior that surprises me. What is really shocking is how their Ministers appear on television without the self -realization that the rest of the world is horrified. Like all totalitarian regimes they are unable to see themselves in the global mirror. It is an unworkable dichotomy to imagine you can have a fault line within a country that promotes central control for all things except aspects of business. In fact, the truth is that freedom in business demands a great deal of freedom in society. The Chinese bureaucracy is almost certainly an unintended invitation to widespread endemic corruption. If there are vast riches to be gained, and they come through a state controlled tap then the controller of that tap is going to become seriously rich and powerful. Long term there is a fault line in this economic model so wide that the resulting earthquake could damage our whole world when it blows.
India is a different story. It is the biggest democracy in the world, but it is not an efficient democracy working like anything we know in the western world. It is no worse for this except where it comes to long-term efficiencies. Although there is a growing middle class in India, there are also huge social inequalities and almost feudal social economics in play. This model can work if there is continual growth in wealth, which takes everyone’s collective mind off their plight in other areas. Again, India, like China, is going to suffer huge growing pains that could well result in massive social upheaval and this might lead to breakdowns in the present social order.
Home grown consumerism can ameliorate the damage this inevitable changing of gears will cause as the world economy shudders into neutral, perhaps reverse, but it won’t make it vanish.
Brazil and Russia both have some similarities to each other. They each possess large populations of able and dexterous people but above all they are rich in resources. The Russians are prepared to bully anyone that doesn’t meet their price but that can backfire badly when the boot is on the other foot and economies contract. Some people regard Brazil as being almost ungovernable. Russia is now governed by their new Tsar, Mister Putin and has become a giant and corrupt oligarchy that he controls. It is a gangster state.
Will these BRIC economic tigers prosper, or is their flame going to flicker and die? My belief is that they are going to have to reform or they will inevitably fail in the longer term. We should do all we can to help them succeed in this process for the benefit of us all.
Faith
Faith and why we must maintain it!
In Jerusalem, a female journalist heard about a very old Jewish man who had been going to the Wailing Wall in to pray, three times a day, every day, for a long, long time; so she went to check it out.
The journalist went to the Wailing Wall and there he was. She watched this dignified, obviously holy man pray; and after about 45 minutes, when he turned to leave, she approached him for an interview.
"I'm Rebecca Smith from the BBC. Sir, how long have you been coming to the wall and praying?"
"For about 60 years." He responded, “Three time a day, every day for 60 years.”
"60 years! That's amazing! What do you pray for?" Ms. Smith asked.
"I pray for peace between the Christians, Jews, and the Muslims. I pray for all the hatred to stop and I pray for all our children to grow up in safety and friendship."
"How do you feel after doing this for 60 years?"
"Like I'm talking to a f…ing brick wall!!!"
In Jerusalem, a female journalist heard about a very old Jewish man who had been going to the Wailing Wall in to pray, three times a day, every day, for a long, long time; so she went to check it out.
The journalist went to the Wailing Wall and there he was. She watched this dignified, obviously holy man pray; and after about 45 minutes, when he turned to leave, she approached him for an interview.
"I'm Rebecca Smith from the BBC. Sir, how long have you been coming to the wall and praying?"
"For about 60 years." He responded, “Three time a day, every day for 60 years.”
"60 years! That's amazing! What do you pray for?" Ms. Smith asked.
"I pray for peace between the Christians, Jews, and the Muslims. I pray for all the hatred to stop and I pray for all our children to grow up in safety and friendship."
"How do you feel after doing this for 60 years?"
"Like I'm talking to a f…ing brick wall!!!"
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Why We Went Full Circle
Full Circle is a film that tells the poignant tale of a son and his unrelenting investigation to find his lost father and 68 fellow submariners. “The Men of the INS Dakar – Never Forgotten”.
This is what they call a passion project, a film that has no right to exist, and should have stopped production a thousand times. It has taken me more than 8 years to make, which is much longer than films I made that were much bigger and more complex on the surface. How could a little feature length documentary be harder to make than other, much bigger films I had a role in producing like, “Gold” or “Shout at the Devil” or “The Kids are Alright?”
It’s a film about Jewish people that’s how! We Jews are, as a group, difficult, stiff necked and opinionated, and I include myself in this description, and that results in some very interesting moments along the filmmaking path. But now I am back full time in film producing I want to make films that show Jewish people as heroes, as fellow human beings, without the need for us to be caricatures or apologists for our very existence. Perhaps this could best be described as a Jewish response to the Victorian concept of muscular Christianity. I have long thought that Jews use our successes as a defense mechanism rather than as a positive example of our abilities and humanity. I intend to do my bit to change this, whilst still making entertaining films, being careful to make sure that the message is sublimated in exciting and interesting plots.
In 1968, submariner Dan Manor was lost at sea with 68 fellow submariners. Dan was returning home to Israel aboard the INS Dakar to see his newborn son Arnon, when tragedy struck. Midway across the Mediterranean, communication was lost, and a year later the Dakar’s emergency buoy washed up on the Egyptian coastline. The crew were no longer missing, but lost at sea.
We follow Arnon’s emotional, compulsive journey from London, to LA to Cyprus to Israel and then to sea. Always driven to answer questions, to close the circle. We accompany the families of the lost crew, the deep-water salvage adventure that finally returns the Dakar with her tragic history back to Israel.
The film was produced in Israel, at sea, in the USA, the UK and Cyprus. Several hundred hours of material were filmed and we the cooperation of a huge number of people was essential; most especially some very wonderful folks at the Israel Navy, their Defence Ministry, the Israel Consulate in New York and the Royal Naval Museum in Gosport and last, but certainly not least the men and women of the fantastic salvage company crew, from the Nauticos Corporation.
Whenever Arnon and I have crossed swords, and that is not an altogether unique occurrence and I threaten to quit he or I remind ourselves that we are not making this film for us, but for the men who will never get to see it, the lost sailors of the Israel navy.
The INS Dakar was originally named the HMS Totem, a World War II “T-class” submarine. In 1945 the Cowichan Tribe in Canada presented the submarine with a totem pole. As long as the small totem sailed with her, it was said she would come to no harm. In 1967, the HMS Totem was sold to the Israeli Navy, refurbished and renamed Dakar. Part of the process was to remove the totem pole.
The 9 January 1968 saw the Dakar sail its maiden voyage to Haifa via Gibraltar. Throughout transit, Dakar regularly transmitted her position to HQ - until communications suddenly and inexplicably ceased. On 27 January, a Cypriot radio station received a distress call on the frequency of Dakar’s emergency buoy. No further traces of the submarine were communicated.
The submarine’s disappearance fuelled rumors and theories surrounding the whereabouts of the crew and craft. It was believed that some of the submariners aboard were alive but being held in secret captivity based at a Russian gulag. Other theories suggested that the Dakar was attacked and sunk by Israel’s enemies. There were even rumours of mutiny, American revenge for the loss of their spy ship, the Liberty during the Six Day War, or had it been something more prosaic?
Throughout a more than thirty-year period, numerous search missions were launched extensively searching different parts of the Mediterranean. On 9 February 1969, a year after the Dakar disappeared, a fisherman found her stern emergency buoy marker washed up on the coast of Khan Yunis, a town southwest of Gaza. As a result, experts believed that the Dakar was 50-70 nautical miles off her planned route. This deduction was unfortunately inaccurate, and misled searchers for decades.
It was not until April 1999 that a search effort was concentrated along the path of the original route once Rear Admiral Gideon Raz was appointed as head of the new committee.
In May 1999, Admiral Raz hired Nauticos Corporation – the very same company who found and filmed the Titanic. Using advanced technology and a highly qualified team of forensic, salvage, and operations experts. Suddenly, dramatically, they located the Dakar in the Mediterranean Sea. She was found at a depth of 10,000 feet. In October 2000, using the latest technology the Dakar’s bridge and conning tower were successfully raised out of the deep blue sea and delivered home to her originally intended destination at her home naval base in Haifa. Now the Dakar is proudly on display and forms part of a tribute to her crew.
Dakar is a familiar word for Israelis – a large number of cities and towns have a Dakar Street, and several schools and other public institutions are also named in memory of the submarine. On Mount Herzel in Jerusalem, within Israel's national and military cemetery, there is a monument to the Dakar and her crew. Sixty-nine names are engraved on a submarine-like tomb. Dan Manor’s name is one of them.
Every year, on the Hebrew date, 7th of Adar, Israel mourns and remembers her missing soldiers, airmen and sailors. Among those who will always be remembered are Dakar's sixty-nine men.
Full Circle was graced with the expertise of many talented and professional individuals. Leading the team and maintaining the documentary’s unique vision was key throughout the seven-year production process and remaining focused with teams in four different countries was no minor feat. We brought together the key elements of the why, when and where surrounding this tale. Similarly, our interviewees were crucial in the piecing together of the events as well as providing an essential view perspective of the submariner relative.
When Arnon Manor and I got to know each other almost a decade ago, the film was an unrealised lifelong passion of Arnon’s, which, I am proud to say; together we made into a reality.
That son of the missing submariner, Arnon Manor, is my son-in law. This film concludes his 32-year search for the father he never knew. As I say in the film, he searches for his father and in doing so I believe he finds himself. I am proud to have helped him take this journey. I think it is an inspiration to us all that Israel never walks away from its sons and daughters lost in that seemingly unending struggle for survival. Through it all it retains and demonstrates its humanity by never letting go, never stopping in its searching and its striving, no matter what the cost in time or money.
I did make a promise to a man I could never meet, my unknown mishboocha, that I would tell his story with and for his son, and now our common grand children. So it’s an intensely personal experience of filmmaking. I am in it to explain our extraordinary story, as is Arnon, my wife Avril even makes a fleeting appearance, as do my grand children (you will recognise them as they are spectacularly beautiful and clever!) and my beautiful daughter, Sarah. Keira Knightly and Natalie Portman have been compared to our Sarah, but Keira, Natalie, you’re lovely girls, but get serious.
Full Circle has been a tough yet touching documentary to produce, and maybe to watch. I suppose a measure of its success in the preview screenings so far is that when I turn around a great many of the audience is crying.
“We have a unique film, which works at a deeply poignant level, and that poignancy inspires the adventure. These guys really care, all of them, and you can’t help but be affected by that.”
As Arnon said, “It’s been hellish difficult at times and emotionally draining, but a privilege nonetheless. This is a story, which had to be told for all families, anywhere, who ever lost someone”.
I think Arnon’s story is for every man and woman, it’s universal, it’s about hope against all odds and all the evidence, redemption, never giving up, and finally, it’s about love.
If you want to find out more about me or the film please feel free to check out
www.fullcirclemovie.com
This is what they call a passion project, a film that has no right to exist, and should have stopped production a thousand times. It has taken me more than 8 years to make, which is much longer than films I made that were much bigger and more complex on the surface. How could a little feature length documentary be harder to make than other, much bigger films I had a role in producing like, “Gold” or “Shout at the Devil” or “The Kids are Alright?”
It’s a film about Jewish people that’s how! We Jews are, as a group, difficult, stiff necked and opinionated, and I include myself in this description, and that results in some very interesting moments along the filmmaking path. But now I am back full time in film producing I want to make films that show Jewish people as heroes, as fellow human beings, without the need for us to be caricatures or apologists for our very existence. Perhaps this could best be described as a Jewish response to the Victorian concept of muscular Christianity. I have long thought that Jews use our successes as a defense mechanism rather than as a positive example of our abilities and humanity. I intend to do my bit to change this, whilst still making entertaining films, being careful to make sure that the message is sublimated in exciting and interesting plots.
In 1968, submariner Dan Manor was lost at sea with 68 fellow submariners. Dan was returning home to Israel aboard the INS Dakar to see his newborn son Arnon, when tragedy struck. Midway across the Mediterranean, communication was lost, and a year later the Dakar’s emergency buoy washed up on the Egyptian coastline. The crew were no longer missing, but lost at sea.
We follow Arnon’s emotional, compulsive journey from London, to LA to Cyprus to Israel and then to sea. Always driven to answer questions, to close the circle. We accompany the families of the lost crew, the deep-water salvage adventure that finally returns the Dakar with her tragic history back to Israel.
The film was produced in Israel, at sea, in the USA, the UK and Cyprus. Several hundred hours of material were filmed and we the cooperation of a huge number of people was essential; most especially some very wonderful folks at the Israel Navy, their Defence Ministry, the Israel Consulate in New York and the Royal Naval Museum in Gosport and last, but certainly not least the men and women of the fantastic salvage company crew, from the Nauticos Corporation.
Whenever Arnon and I have crossed swords, and that is not an altogether unique occurrence and I threaten to quit he or I remind ourselves that we are not making this film for us, but for the men who will never get to see it, the lost sailors of the Israel navy.
The INS Dakar was originally named the HMS Totem, a World War II “T-class” submarine. In 1945 the Cowichan Tribe in Canada presented the submarine with a totem pole. As long as the small totem sailed with her, it was said she would come to no harm. In 1967, the HMS Totem was sold to the Israeli Navy, refurbished and renamed Dakar. Part of the process was to remove the totem pole.
The 9 January 1968 saw the Dakar sail its maiden voyage to Haifa via Gibraltar. Throughout transit, Dakar regularly transmitted her position to HQ - until communications suddenly and inexplicably ceased. On 27 January, a Cypriot radio station received a distress call on the frequency of Dakar’s emergency buoy. No further traces of the submarine were communicated.
The submarine’s disappearance fuelled rumors and theories surrounding the whereabouts of the crew and craft. It was believed that some of the submariners aboard were alive but being held in secret captivity based at a Russian gulag. Other theories suggested that the Dakar was attacked and sunk by Israel’s enemies. There were even rumours of mutiny, American revenge for the loss of their spy ship, the Liberty during the Six Day War, or had it been something more prosaic?
Throughout a more than thirty-year period, numerous search missions were launched extensively searching different parts of the Mediterranean. On 9 February 1969, a year after the Dakar disappeared, a fisherman found her stern emergency buoy marker washed up on the coast of Khan Yunis, a town southwest of Gaza. As a result, experts believed that the Dakar was 50-70 nautical miles off her planned route. This deduction was unfortunately inaccurate, and misled searchers for decades.
It was not until April 1999 that a search effort was concentrated along the path of the original route once Rear Admiral Gideon Raz was appointed as head of the new committee.
In May 1999, Admiral Raz hired Nauticos Corporation – the very same company who found and filmed the Titanic. Using advanced technology and a highly qualified team of forensic, salvage, and operations experts. Suddenly, dramatically, they located the Dakar in the Mediterranean Sea. She was found at a depth of 10,000 feet. In October 2000, using the latest technology the Dakar’s bridge and conning tower were successfully raised out of the deep blue sea and delivered home to her originally intended destination at her home naval base in Haifa. Now the Dakar is proudly on display and forms part of a tribute to her crew.
Dakar is a familiar word for Israelis – a large number of cities and towns have a Dakar Street, and several schools and other public institutions are also named in memory of the submarine. On Mount Herzel in Jerusalem, within Israel's national and military cemetery, there is a monument to the Dakar and her crew. Sixty-nine names are engraved on a submarine-like tomb. Dan Manor’s name is one of them.
Every year, on the Hebrew date, 7th of Adar, Israel mourns and remembers her missing soldiers, airmen and sailors. Among those who will always be remembered are Dakar's sixty-nine men.
Full Circle was graced with the expertise of many talented and professional individuals. Leading the team and maintaining the documentary’s unique vision was key throughout the seven-year production process and remaining focused with teams in four different countries was no minor feat. We brought together the key elements of the why, when and where surrounding this tale. Similarly, our interviewees were crucial in the piecing together of the events as well as providing an essential view perspective of the submariner relative.
When Arnon Manor and I got to know each other almost a decade ago, the film was an unrealised lifelong passion of Arnon’s, which, I am proud to say; together we made into a reality.
That son of the missing submariner, Arnon Manor, is my son-in law. This film concludes his 32-year search for the father he never knew. As I say in the film, he searches for his father and in doing so I believe he finds himself. I am proud to have helped him take this journey. I think it is an inspiration to us all that Israel never walks away from its sons and daughters lost in that seemingly unending struggle for survival. Through it all it retains and demonstrates its humanity by never letting go, never stopping in its searching and its striving, no matter what the cost in time or money.
I did make a promise to a man I could never meet, my unknown mishboocha, that I would tell his story with and for his son, and now our common grand children. So it’s an intensely personal experience of filmmaking. I am in it to explain our extraordinary story, as is Arnon, my wife Avril even makes a fleeting appearance, as do my grand children (you will recognise them as they are spectacularly beautiful and clever!) and my beautiful daughter, Sarah. Keira Knightly and Natalie Portman have been compared to our Sarah, but Keira, Natalie, you’re lovely girls, but get serious.
Full Circle has been a tough yet touching documentary to produce, and maybe to watch. I suppose a measure of its success in the preview screenings so far is that when I turn around a great many of the audience is crying.
“We have a unique film, which works at a deeply poignant level, and that poignancy inspires the adventure. These guys really care, all of them, and you can’t help but be affected by that.”
As Arnon said, “It’s been hellish difficult at times and emotionally draining, but a privilege nonetheless. This is a story, which had to be told for all families, anywhere, who ever lost someone”.
I think Arnon’s story is for every man and woman, it’s universal, it’s about hope against all odds and all the evidence, redemption, never giving up, and finally, it’s about love.
If you want to find out more about me or the film please feel free to check out
www.fullcirclemovie.com
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