Non-election Russian Interference
With Izabella Tabarovsky
Looking for a non-election podcast? How about an hour or so of soothing soviet antisemitism? We got you. Our guest today is Izabella Tabarovsky, a scholar of Soviet antizionism and contemporary antisemitism. You should read pretty much everything Izabella has ever written: start here. We discuss how everything old is new again, why being a self-hating Jewish celebrity is sooooo 1970s, and what you can do today to de-program your brain from stale propaganda.
Consider the next hour or so a mindfulness track of KGB waterfall sounds to calm your anxious soul.
Speaking of waterfalls, Chaya Leah wouldn’t let me talk about my trip to Iceland, so you’ll have to sit through a slideshow now before you get to the episode stuff. Enjoy:
Ok, back to antisemitism of the non-Icelandic variety. In this episode we cover:
The Z3 institute for Jewish Priorities (there’s a conference you can go to in the Bay Area!)
Soviets are the OG antizionists
Supermarkets are awesome
We should all be Refusenicks
Escape from Russia
The KGB marketing team hard at work
Connecting the dots like Candace OWens
Oh no is Israel like American in Vietnam?? (no)
Club Z so you can raise non-self hating kids
Jewish celebrities that hate Israel? Yea that’s been done before
Wikipedia is Disinformation with a hard D
Know your history
A badass German Air Force plane celebrating Israel’s birthday
For more feels, here’ss a fun Israeli song that made me cry not-necassarily-sad tears. The chorus goes something like:
“Alone in the desert, the world is a narrow bridge, in a minute we’ll fall apart.
Alone in the desert, only the cold wind keeps us huddled”
Ihaven't listened yet, but am about to. I love Isabella. I have heard her in a bunch of other podcasts, and I've read some of her articles. And though I am American, I relate so much, as before they left Poland for Israel, my mom and her family went to Russia for a few months, so my grandfather could say goodbye to his brother and his family.. And there were photophraphs with people's faces cut out, as those people had left for Israel. Also, they spent the whole time speaking in Yiddish so the neighbors wouldn't understand, and my mom's uncle wouldn't get arrested for Zionist activities, and my grandfather too. And so, once they got to Israel, my grandfather did not have contact with his brother again. Also, the only reason why my mom's family could leave Poland was that my grandfahter got an invitation to go to a conference in Australia, and the Joint helped them make Aliyah from Austria. The Polish government did not want anyone leaving, but really did not want Jews going to Israel, and this was before the expulsions of 1968.
And now there's that resurgence of "Jews, go back to Poland," like it's 1924 again.
I have recently read "Fear no evil" by Natan Sharansky, so I found the episode particularly interesting, thank you! It seems so absurd that this was still going on right before the fall of the Berlin wall! But then, after what we saw happening in Amsterdam, nothing seems absurd anymore! :(