So, does he have a foreskin?

Itzik Asher's Journey to the New

There is a trend these days for picking out funny bits of news and sending them around the globe, and in this week’s selection was a story from Florida. Parents have been complaining about a sculpture called Journey to the New, by Itzik Asher, which depicts an “anatomically correct man” and is situated 100 yards from a school. The statue is said to celebrate the journeys of Russian and Ethiopian Jews to Israel, but away from the idiocy of the prudish public, there is a greater political problem with this work of art.

Jews have been in Ethiopia for a very long time. In fact more than that, the Ethiopian community, the Beta Israel, is one of the oldest in the world. Far older than the Jews of Central and Eastern Europe anyway. In the 1980s and 1990s, thousands of Ethiopian Jews ended up in Israel, mainly as a result of three military operations: Operation Moses, Operation Joshua, and Operation Solomon. These were carried out due to the suggestion that the Beta Israel were under threat from political instability in Ethiopia and Sudan. These airlifts are often painted as one of the “miracles” of Israel, and the story that is less often told is the plight of those Ethiopians once they reached Israel. To start with, the Beta Israel, were told by the rabbis that they were not real Jews.

The Ethiopian Jews had to go through a process by which they were integrated into the country, and this included “symbolic circumcision.” What this means is whilst they didn’t have their foreskins cut off (many were already circumcised), blood was drawn. Excuse me if I think this is just a tad barbaric, but it sure as hell doesn’t remind me of any miracles I know of. In fact the only thing I can think of is that moment in Exodus when Moses comes down to find the ongoing worship of the golden calf: “Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said Who is on the Lord’s side? Let him come unto me, And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto him. And he said unto them. Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, put every man his sword by his side, and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbour. And the children of Levi did according to the word of Moses, and there fell the people that day about three thousand men.

Ok, so we don’t have people being killed for idol worship or orgies these days, but for some reason, the Israeli state thought that these brutal circumcisions were reasonable. This is not evening mentioning the rest of the story of the Ethiopian Jews, who were sent to live in Ma’abarot (refugee camps) which quickly became slums, and who since have suffered a great amount of racism, including complaints from parents that there are “too many Ethiopians in school classes.” The Ethiopian Jews were also forced to undertake a one and a half year “Return to Israel” course, including intensive study, and a commitment to observe orthodox rituals. More than any other Jew who wishes to settle in Israel.

The story of recent immigrants to Israel from Russia is rather different. The questions aimed at the Ethiopians are never asked of Russians. In fact Israel seemed so keen to import cheap skilled labour from Russia that they accidentally brought over a number of non-Jewish anti-semites, who were attempting to flee poverty in Russia. These Russian anti-semites then set up a fascist party, and tried to sell copies of Mein Kampf in bookshops in Israel. No circumcisions for them. And yes, the Russians have at times been persecuted in Israel, but their history is nothing like the oppression that Ethiopians have experienced.

All of this points to one thing: some old fashioned colonial-style racism on behalf of both the Israeli state and a proportion of the Israeli population. And what is worse is that it’s swept under the carpet by the myth of a miracle. Actually, on that point, no-one ever talks about those who were left behind in Occupation Solomon because they weren’t Jewish. Just like the “miracle” of the Six Day War that using conservative estimates cost the lives of 20,000 Arabs. Many people who really did need help were left behind in Ethiopia and Sudan simply because they were not Jewish. It is shameful that Israel is more concerned about people because they are Jewish than because they are human.

And so, returning to the sculpture, Journey to the New, maybe we can see that this statue is perverse. It isn’t perverse because there’s a penis on show, but rather it’s perverse because it demands that we conflate the history of the Russian and Ethiopian immigrants to Israel. It is perverse because it promotes an awful act of historical revisionism. It is perverse because it promotes the idea of a miracle of people saved, rather than people condemned to brutal rituals and racism in a moment of fear of something even worse with no thought for those who were not saved. It is only when we ask the question of whether that statue has a foreskin, that we can see the problems it holds within it unravel.