Wednesday, September 28, 2005
Dry Bones: an Israeli cartoon blog
Yaakov's site states
The "Dry Bones Project" Foundation is a not-for-profit organization that uses humor and cartoons to fight anti-Semitism and build pride in the Jewish people and the Jewish state .
An article by JTA(Global News Service of the Jewish People) linked to on the site says:
“My experience with Dry Bones has taught me that people laugh when they see the unexpected appearance of what they perceive to be the truth,” explains Kirschen, 66. “The strength of cartoons is that when you get someone to laugh, at that instant they see things from your point of view.”
The Brooklyn-born cartoonist, who immigrated to Israel in 1971, never has concealed his contempt for those he perceives as Israel’s enemies, and the Dry Bones comic strip long has served as an outlet for Kirschen’s strong Zionist beliefs.
Creating the new nonprofit simply represents a more organized effort to fight the anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism that has emerged in the Western world over the past few years.
"We plan to educate those who might be tricked into supporting this war against our people by holding the perpetrators of these assaults and their ideas up to ridicule, satire and exposure," Kirschen says. "Humor is a very basic tool of the Jewish people, and for the entire Judeo-Christian world to be under attack and for us not to use humor would be a silly failing." [...]
"Unlike many cartoonists whose mission is to go for the jugular, Ya’akov sees his mission as educating people," says Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, who says he welcomes this latest initiative.
"As anti-Semitism has mushroomed these past few years, he’s used his Dry Bones to show how ludicrous and untruthful it is. And I think he’s been quite successful," Foxman says.
The blog features new and old cartoons with notes explaining the background of the cartoons. Sure, I don't agree with some of the views and some of it makes me uncomfortable, but then these are the sorts of issues being dealt with. And I, unfortunately, can't claim to know enough about the situation in Israel to even begin to criticise. But because Yaakov gives the background to the cartoons I can begin to educate myself and make informed decisions as to whether I agree with his points on a case by case basis. And having recently read Palestine
by Joe Sacco, this cartoon blog gives me another side to the story. And there are definitely times when Yaakovs views and my own enter a common ground:
So have a look and see what you make of it. And drop by here after and leave a comment - I'd be curious to hear your thoughts.
3 Comments:
the anti defamation league are a bunch of jewish supremacist zionist thugs, I can't believe a decent Irish website would pay any lipservice to the bastards.
hmmm...
lip service:
"Verbal expression of agreement or allegiance, unsupported by real conviction or action; hypocritical respect"
I don't believe my review of the site fits the definition of lip service... perhaps I wasn't clear enough when I stated that I do not know enough about the history of the region to criticise?
I certainly don't know enough to agree or disagree with your assertion that "the anti defamation league are a bunch of jewish supremacist zionist thugs".
Furthermore, the admiration that I mention is directed at someone using the mediums available to them to further an ideal they believe in - whether or not I share their ideals.
And finally, I believe I was very clear in stating that I do not agree with all the views expressed in the site/blog.
I'm always open to discussion here, so please feel free to discuss the issues you have with the particular site in question - for now, I think I posted a fairly honest and balanced review of the site to the best of my abilities. And I'll extend that courtesy to any site that is relevant and in any way interesting.
"the anti defamation league are a bunch of jewish supremacist zionist thugs"?
Interesting viewpoint, but what does that have to do with Dry Bones?
Or does anonymous figure that anybody who is against anti-Semitism is part of the ADL?
Actually a lot of people think that anti-Semitism is a bad thing.
Really.
Is that hard for anonymous to accept?
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