The wrong sort of Jew – a crowdfunder

Let them speak: the life histories and present experiences of non-Zionist, Labour Party Jews.

“Somebody had been trawling my Facebook. They decided to pick on fourteen posts. Mostly against the Israeli government. And in four of them I actually give my background. I come from a family that escaped from the pogroms, that grew up a hundred percent Jewish. My mum fought against Mosley’s blackshirts. It’s like a white person saying to a black anti-apartheid activist, you’re a racist, you’re being racist against black people. You with me?”

The emotional testimony, with its echoes of Kafka and The Crucible, has been edited into a powerful theatre script by John Graham Davies and Farhana Sheikh. The production (directed by Hilary Westlake) will be a dramatic illustration of the issues subsequently thrown up by Al Jazeera’s The Labour Files, and by the Labour Party’s own Forde Report. More than that, it dramatises the histories that have shaped Jewish socialists and fuelled their commitments.

Despite blanket opposition or fearful silence from theatre venues regarding this important theatre project, the team behind it are determined that the voices of these non-Zionist Jews are heard. A partial staging of the play is now planned for early spring, with a view to a bigger production to follow – but money is needed.

The highly experienced writers, director and professional actors are giving their time in solidarity, but we need to cover the costs of editing the filmed material, and of hiring the spring venue so that audiences can see it.

Since starting the project, two of the interviewees, both elderly Jewish socialists with long histories of anti-fascist, anti-apartheid and pro-Palestine activity behind them, have died. They died trying to clear their names.

Because Corbyn was being so vilified, both myself and my late husband thought we should join in order to try and defend him. As Jews, rebels against the Zionist movement, we felt we could actually contribute to this.

We now know the extent of deceit used to undermine the movement around Jeremy Corbyn. The Wrong Sort of Jew shows how that purge worked, and the extent of the human cost for those targeted as being the wrong sort of Jew.

Please give if you can, and circulate.