No Other Plan … but to keep being us

I find myself feeling so heartbroken at the world around us sometimes. There was commotion the other day at the Miami Beach City Council meeting over Mayor Steven Meiner’s proposal to evict O Cinema for screening Academy Award-winning documentary, “No Other Land.” I watched on zoom as Jewish people I know spoke on behalf of both sides of the argument — free speech and expression versus potential propaganda in a public theater on government property.

My heart broke, not at the debate among the people I respect, but at the anger among the crowd, the occasional antisemitic comment or falsehood about Israel mixed in to others’ arguments, the negative attention on Jewish people and the negative attention on the city that I love.

There is so much anger in this country. And it weighs on me personally.

That’s why I understand where Mayor Meiner was coming from. He wasn’t thinking like a mayor, he was worried as a Jew. He saw something he would want to protest as a citizen, and instead, thought a stroke of the pen would make the problem go away.

But that meeting and Meiner’s decision to ultimately withdraw his proposal is proof that we can’t take the easy way out in the fight against hate. We’re not going to remove an Oscar-winning film from the ethos by destroying a beloved local cinema — one that has also been a proud partner of the Miami Jewish Film Festival. We aren’t going to change the world by saying things like “how would you feel if this was about another minority group” and other whataboutisms. That never works, even if true.

We know how antisemites feel about Jews. We know the same rules don’t always apply to us. We know the double standards and the tropes and the vitriol has existed for thousands of years, and we know that the only way to win is to continue to be us.

The kind of people who fight for freedoms and against hate at the same time. The kind of people who protest and counter-protest. The kind of people who watch movies, and then go and make better ones. (Go see “October 8” as soon as you can!) We have to be loud and proud and turn our fear and heartbreak into pride and resilience.

History will prove that “No Other Land” doesn’t belong in theaters, but what makes me hopeful is that this week, Jews proved that we are strong enough to withstand the hype. We’ve never been the type to worship little golden statues anyway.