so this week in toronto we've had the hotdocs festival, which means night after night of free movies for students. lots of people are graduating and celebrating. a few nights ago i caught a hotdoc at the bloor cinema called kike like me.

kike like me is a post-modern diasporic approach to jewish identity. as a new group of secular / assimilate jewish youth integrate themselves into society, how do they relate to their jewish identity? how are they seen in the world? does the world really hate jews?

filmmaker jamie kastner points out his fingers: look at all the people who hate us! these people love us so much and exotify our culture. damn some jews do some really crazy things! what if i told you i was jewish? at the end of the film in the audience question and answer session he made lots of sarcastic jokes about anti-semitism an arabs. PSYCH. jokes guys.

the thing that made me mad about the film was that they didn't go to east jerusalem. they showed a bit around aliya (when jews immigrate to israel) and how sub-standard the absorbtion centers are. wow, so israel really isn't paradice, but what about right next door to the suburban jewish refugee camps, how do their neighbours feel about jewish identiy? the filmaker stated that the film wasn't about anti-semitism and that he didn't want to fish for something that is already a so obvious responce.

i really question this suposed anti-semitism. for me the greatest impact on my jewish identity is my experience as a human rights observer in palestine. in my time there i met so many kind people, who despite my being jewish accepted me, took me into their homes, told me their stories. i was able to say sorry, i wanted them to know that not all jews support the occupation. i heard stories of walls seperating communities. i rubbed the stumps of bulldosed olive trees. i listened to sound bombs pierce the crisp night air, waking up slumbering babies. i saw that jews were fighting to maintain stolen land. etiyayullayullaocupation musta marraaaaaaaa.

my arabic slips out like a rusty nail, la, yullah, sallam alecham, bukra enshalla, enters spanish with it's hebrew jajajajaaaaaaaaaaaas y ojalas. yiddish mishmashes with tiquismo chalango oy vey que dicha guey. my jewish identity lies infront of a bulldoser in the west bank, slowly shoveling gravel over an olive orchard. my jewish identity lies in the shores of the new world, running a small jewlery shop in buenas aires. my jewish identity forgets it's mother tongues, and eats up it's surroundings. parlez vous fraces?

this is my identity: post modern diaspora.