Yediot Ahronot Hebrew-language newspaper with highest circulation in Israel. "7 Days" Supplement ( Click for Hebrew version of "From Right to Left") September 12, 2008 "From Right to Left" - Dani Spector (Annotated version) She began her way in Kahane’s "Kach movement [Jewish Defense League], as a wild young woman who majored in provocations. But the birth of her daughter changed her life perspective entirely. During the past 10 years, Melisse Lewine-Boskovich (55) is the director of Peace Child Israel, which tries to arrange meetings between Arab and Jewish children in theatre workshops. But meanwhile, she admits, the dialogue between the two groups is deteriorating. The first time that you meet Melisse Lewine-Boskovich (55), it will be difficult to believe what kind of upheaval she experienced. It is also likely that in light of her past activity you won’t buy the fact that her principles have changed so drastically. Lewine-Boskovich, who spent long weeks in detention [jail], was one of the leading supporters of Meir Kahane, today is the director of one of the leading organizations of peace education in Israel with a budget of millions and a long-term dream of being the Minister of Arab-Jewish Dialogue in the next Knesset. "Everything changed when I became a mother", she claims. "After my daughter was born I came to the realization that if I want to work towards the cause of my people, there needs to be a different way of working; not wars and conflicts. I understood that every Arab and Palestinian child has a mother, and that she deserves a normal and good life for her son or daughter, just like my daughter. I understood that the peace would come from motherhood because we have the biggest stake in the matter". Are you sure all mothers think like you? "There are only two mothers that I don’t understand: the mother of Nasralla and that of Bin Laden. I feel an immense abuse in my heart since the attack on the Twin Towers. When Achmadinijad [Arafat] was invited to the United Nations [in 1973] all kinds of ideas of how to kill him came into my head. When Nasralla appeared on TV and played on the emotions of the parents of the kidnapped soldiers [in 2002] he tortured them. This ate me up on the inside; that man is evil". What about Kahane’s mother? I can understand her more easily than Nasrallah’s mom. Motherhood must bring the change. Before the birth, I thought there were people who would preferably die; afterwards I could no longer feel that way. Not every woman who gives birth turns into a pacifist, but it happened to me. From the moment that I understood what it means to be a mother, I identified with all the mothers of the world". Third Generation American One of her first childhood memories was her grandfather telling the story of how he organized a breakfast for members of the Etsel who were in the U.S. on a fundraising mission. "We are 3rd generation American", she says, "but we were a family that was supported Israel, that sent money from time to time and went to synagogue on the High Holidays and special occasions. We had a Jewish identity but not Orthodox, and I certainly had no thought about immigrating to Israel. I had no clue about what Zionism was". She doesn’t remember her adolescent years favorably. Her father, a businessman and her mother a teacher, had difficulty dealing with her and she was forced to find an alternative framework [to the family unit]. While searching, she came up "The Jewish Defense League" ["JDL"], Meir Kahane’s youth movement. "Today I believe that everyone who was in the movement had something in common", she says, "particularly on the psychological level. We had problems at home and looked for other options. This framework was Jewish and accepted us unconditionally. My parents didn’t know how to accept me because of my being overweight. I missed being loved and being accepted unconditionally. They didn’t understand what they were doing. I was a sad and lonely child so I went out looking for other outlets". What did you do at the meetings? "All the discussions were about the future of the Jewish people and gave me the feeling that I am strong. I felt that I was doing something that I love and I found strength that filled the vacuum in my life. I did for my people what was not done for me and it answered certain needs". "We learned self-defense and we talked about love of Israel. Additionally, we organized activity the main objective being to get the issues in the paper. Anything went. There was a school in Philadelphia where parents complained that Blacks in school were attacking their Jewish children. The Jewish school principal didn’t want to acknowledge the fact that he had a problem. We unplugged the telephones but then the police arrived and arrested us. The two Jewish secretaries started crying when they took us away, wearing the t-shirts with the Jewish star and the fist. We didn’t do anything bad there, but this was our objective. We invaded the school only to get a headline in the paper announcing that this schools was dangerous for Jews". So you achieved your objective? "Unfortunately, time proved us right. A month later, a 9-year-old Black child arrived at school with a handgun and killed a Jewish teacher. During that period there was a significant amount of anti-Semitism. The heads of pigs were thrown into Jewish institutions [and swastikas painted on synagogues in the States]. In this context we were also active by entering offices of all kinds of organizations until the police came and arrested us. This way we got another story in the paper and continued another few months". What did your family think about their 17-year-old daughter who spent more time in jail than in school? "I was arrested 4 times and my family thought I had gone nuts but I continued with the activity with ‘business as usual’. In 1971 the Russian Ice Circus came to the US and we decided that we had to stop them. I decided to take up the challenge. I went there [to the performance at the Spectrum in Philadelphia] and in the middle of a performance, went onto the ice and started screaming with a banner ‘Free the Russian Jews!’ That night I was in jail at least the next day I was on the front page of the paper. This furthered the cause immensely. Looking back, are you proud of this activity? It was part of my psychological profile at the time. I knew that Arabs were a danger to my people. Back then I didn’t know there were Arabs in Israel. I knew that there was an over-all danger from the Arab world and that they were a threat. At a certain stage, they made me the editor of the JDL newspaper and gave me a different name so that my parents wouldn’t know I was involved. Summer Vacation in Israel When the situation deteriorated and her sister also joined the group, her parents decided to take action and sent both daughters for summer vacation in Israel to a kibbutz identified with the left on the political map. "I didn’t really know Hebrew and I didn’t know what was happening here in Israel, but I really enjoyed myself here. While here, I met Israel Eldad, Shmuel Katz and Yitzhak Shamir who I interviewed for the paper I was editing and he [Shamir] told me about the Lehi [Stern Gang]. My meeting with them strengthened my connection to Israel. But the most exciting meeting was with Geula Cohen [former member of Knesset] who I had met previously in the U.S. She was an amazing woman who helped me meet all the leaders of the Right, and whom I think saw as a young version of herself; someone who was continuing her work. She saw my obsession about Love of Israel and strongly identified with me". Did you meet anyone from the other side of the political map? "No. It didn’t interest me. What for? They were my enemies. Now the Right is calling me the enemy, while before I was calling people like me the enemy. It’s rather funny". After completing her studies in 1971, Lewine-Boskovich decided to immigrate to Israel. A young man was in the picture and she followed him. Right before getting on the plane, she called her friend Geula Cohen and asked to live with her for a few months. "It was a very difficult time for Geula, because her father had just passed away. But I guess she really liked me and she agreed to let me come and live with her for the first few months. The two girls from the kibbutz [Shoval], where I stayed on my previous visit, came to the airport to pick me up. They couldn’t believe their eyes when I said farewell and then went to hug Geula and departed with her. I lived with her for 3 months. [Member of Knesset] Tzachi Hanegbi was a 9-year-old boy. Reciprocating the generous hospitality, I gave him a few lessons in karate. He didn’t know much, but was enthusiastic". From conversation between the reporter, Dani Spector and Geula Cohen: "I remember her", says Geula Cohen. "But it was many years ago and since then we have not been in contact. After she taught Tzachi some karate, he got interested and started taking some lessons. As I now recall it all began then". "I met her the first time when I went to the U.S. during the ‘70’s to organize the opposition against the oppression and silencing of the activists for the struggle of the Russian Jews, and Lisi was among them". "I arrived there to help develop the agenda and policy of Meir Kahane and his movement regarding the subject and I was with Lisi and others when we interrupted numerous events to distribute leaflets on the subject. After this activity I met with Kahane and told him to change gear because he was fighting for the wrong subject. Instead of fighting for the right of the Russians Jews to immigrate to Israel, he was fighting for their rights to remain Jews in Russia; that was a mistake. That same night he told everyone to throw everything in the trash and adopted my mission, which, in the end, succeeded. When he came to live in Israel, I guided him a bit but later cut all ties because, in my opinion, he made a lot of mistakes. It would have been preferable if he had stayed there". "When Lisi arrived in Israel I hosted her and gave her a bed until she could get organized, because she was a very nice girl full of idealism". Do you feel betrayed? "I believe that if a person is an ideologist, then it’s in his blood forever. So, once she was against the Arabs and fought for her beliefs with all her soul and today she is fighting for something else. A person with strong beliefs will always have them. Just their positioning changes. She won’t influence me to change my beliefs. I just hope that she is doing good things for our children". Would you like to renew the connection? "I don’t want to meet her but if she wants to, let her give me a call". And what did you do here? First of all, I was in love. When I came to Israel, we discussed opening a JDL office in the Rechavia neighborhood in Jerusalem. It was before Kahane came to live in Israel. It didn’t bother me to get arrested here too. In 1972 I was held at the Nive Tirtza prison for 3 days. All the women there tried to sell me hashish". Why did you go back to the U.S. so soon? "I was young and in love; when the guy decided to go back, I went with him. I knew that this was just a temporary exit and that I’d be back. I began my music studies in the U.S. and majored in opera. I did two masters degrees: one in music and one in theatre. And I visited Israel during vacations. In 1978 I returned to Israel and lived in Kibbutz Mazzuva, where I learned Hebrew in the ulpan. Once-a-week I went to Tel Aviv for rehearsals of the Cameran Singers where I sang in the soprano section" [I was known in those days and the music and theatre world as Lisi Lewine]. And what about the ideology? "I put it on hold. [In 1981 I returned to the States to pursue a singing and acting career]. I met the Israeli artist, David Boskovich, who was learning painting in the U.S.; we got married and eventually returned to Israel for good. In 1991, our daughter Alexandra and that’s when the big change happened. ; I entered the world of peace-education and became Melisse Lewine-Boskovich. Melisse Lewine-Boskovich? "As an agent for classical singers in Israel, I retain the name Lisi Lewine; Melisse Boskovich is how people know me in my peace-related activity. It’s actually good that I have two names: If people call asking for me Melisse, I know that the conversation is on the peace subject. If they ask for Lisi, I know that the conversation will be about music or theatre". The first time that Lewine-Boskovich was involved in the realm of peace education, it was with the organization "Play for Peace", an organization that one of her neighbors in the U.S. had founded. "When I joined his organization I was confused; I had just begun to process the changes in my attitudes and was questioning whether support of this activity would erase my right to exist. I felt that I was going through a process that, in the end, would result in change; that I had undergone a transformation. With the birth I had already begun changing my perspective. I realized that I must work for change and repair by means dialogue rather than violence". How did your old friends react to the change? "They didn’t really accept it. I lost contact with most of them. It would be interesting to find out whether Geula Cohen would accept me. I thought about looking her up, but I didn’t know how she would react. She is a woman with an immense heart; I continue loving her from afar and I think that she is one of the women who most love the State of Israel but that her style is different, though I understand her doubts. I believe that Jews behave from a place of fear. On the other hand, the Arabs have a problem with the issue of honor. It is the issue of honor that propels them to difficult places. In the end, until they their life is improved, we, too, will be stuck with our catastrophe. We are the majority versus the minority, but in the region we are the minority versus a majority. It’s know wonder that we’re a little bit nuts. The Jews are like an abused child. Research tells us that an abused child will later abuse others". The difficulty in dialogue. Ten years ago a revolution changed her life. Within a 2-month period she both got divorced and began a new career at Peace Child Israel, after the organization’s founder died suddenly. After four interviews, Lewine-Boskovich became the organization’s director, including oversight of the professional staff that works with the children. "They saw in my CV that I have experience in theatre, also in facilitation and also in accounting and understood that I could was a package that could save the organization money. They offered me the position of director and I began a decade ago". Our objectives are to implement theatre workshops for Arab and Jewish teenagers. We have ten groups of teenagers from both sides, each one with 2 facilitators – one Arab and one Jew – one of them coming with theatre expertise. There have been over 4,000 graduates from each side who know each other a bit better. The organization was founded 20 years ago and when it was much more sexy and trendy to work on the Arab-Jewish subject. We saw that the majority-minority issue was not in very good shape and since then it has only deteriorated". Because of which side? "It’s harder for the Jews to be in dialogue". Why? Because we’re the bad guys in the story? "I wouldn’t say that we’re the bad guys, but simply that those on the other side have very painful stories to tell, especially with regard to the Nakba". ["catastrophe"; establishment of the Jewish State in ’48) You can do plays. Why talk to the kids specifically about the Nakba? "Because this is the truth. Our objective is to perform in schools and bring something real and honest and that will make a change. The fact that the kids stand on the stage is very nice but it’s a bluff. It’s bullshit [only half the story]. It took a lot of hard work. We explain to the parents of the participants that there are organizations where the kids play tennis and others where they put the kids in a room for 3 days of going for the jugular [with no attention to inter-personal connection]. We at Peace Child have to keep them motivated for 2 years, teach them theatre and also allow them to have serious conversations". "The age is also problematic, because these are not really ‘peace children’, but rather ‘the hormones for peace’. The 14-15 year-old age group is really tough; it’s a difficult task. One must tell the truth and learn that it is possible to find ways to deal with it. It is impossible to offer 2 years of activity and not touch on the subjects that concern and bother us. For example, once, during the activity on roots, that uses the family tree, a young Arab girl revealed that her grandfather was the Mukhtar of Deir Yassin. When it was explained to the Jewish kids what she was talking about, it pushed their buttons. This is a meeting of people with two narratives. I am proud of the Jewish kids who begin hearing the stories of the other side and manage to cope with it". Do you urge the kids to adopt a leftist political position? "We don’t teach them what they are supposed to think. And the organization has no platform regarding the army or conscientious objection. But I am sure that whoever was in our program will act differently when he is Gaza or at a roadblock. After the terrorist attack on the Rabbinical Center in Jerusalem, the following week at one of the groups, the usual "what’s up?" question was asked since the previous meeting. One young Arab girl said that she was happy about the attack. She said that maybe it was not nice to say, but that due to the suffering of her people, that it was fair enough that something bad would happen to our side [the Jews]". "The school liaison expected that the staff would interrupt and admonish the girl, and would say that it is forbidden, under any circumstance, to equate death with happiness. But we didn’t intervene. The group itself brought their own reactions to what the girl had said. This actually helped them [the Jewish kids]to strengthen their Jewish identity. We don’t direct them to any political opinion. It is the first opportunity for both the Arabs and the Jews to understand that those on the other side are also human beings. In a group of teens from Tel Aviv and Jaffa, the kids said that they live within just 5 bus stops but that the Jewish kids had never met an Arab before the program. It did something to them". And how do the parents and their friends react to the program? "Generally, they give them grief or laugh at them. It’s been said to participants: ‘What?! You’re going to give up ballet class for this nonsense’? This is the kind of thing they hear from their friends at school. Once we did auditions in a school and selected twelve students to the project. We told them that we wanted to meet their parents the following week. When we got arrived, there were only three. What happened? One of the boys in a recess taunted them: "What, you’re going to talk to those Arabs?’" Where is it hardest to create dialogue? "In Jerusalem it is more difficult. The subject of East Jerusalem [and house demolitions] complicates everything and is not part of the organization’s agenda [majority-minority issues in Israel]. Two years ago we discontinued working there. We also don’t work with the extreme right, unfortunately. One day it will happen because our kind of education must become an integral part of the education in the State of Israel. Those who want to meet for the sake of casual acquaintance don’t exist any longer. There remains only a small core group that is committed to change". What about a group from Sderot? I would be delighted, but they themselves aren’t interested. If I were to try to organize a group between Ofra and Um el-Fahem, the willingness from the Arab side would be nearly total as opposed to the Jewish side that would just stay home. Once there were kids from Kfar Yassif [Arab village in the Western Galilee] who told me that they don’t want to talk to kibbutziks, but only with settlers. In the long run, the difficulty comes from our side". In the end, the nice Jews meet the nice Arabs. There is no real meeting of extremes. "Hah! You think so?! The father of one of the participants in Sakhnin thinks that his son’s participation will help to return his historical lands. That’s the reason he gave his approval. And outside of the extreme left, no one believes in anything anymore. Everyone comes with doubts and is suspicions. True, we don’t work with kids of Efrat, [hard-core settlers] but there are many kids with very right-wing perspective. There is a girl in the program this year whose father is really anti; he allows her to participate but she has to deal with a lot of grief at home. There was a group, in the north shortly after the October 2000 Disturbances, that continued with meetings under the noses of the two neighboring mayors who weren’t on speaking terms". Are you naïve? "Frustrated, not naïve. I see what’s going on. I have a lot of questions but I know my objective. I am afraid that one day we’ll find out that someone from Peace Child did something horrendous in the army or in a terrorist attack. There’s no way I can control everyone’s future, but in the meantime I can see the children from 20 years ago and it had an impact. They are different people. We are missing a Nelson Mandela over here – from both sides. I hope he’ll blossom from among us. Sometimes I think of it. I have a fantasy to establish a [political] party committed to Arab-Jewish dialogue. I’d be happy to be the Coexistence Minister.
Peace Child Israel P.O. Box 57431 Tel Aviv, 61573 Tel: (972-3) 730-0481 Fax: (972-3) 730-0695 Email: pci@netvision.net.il Peace Child Israel: Making Conflict Resolution and Dialogue Work in the Middle East |