1977 Dorf family trip to Israel and stop in West Bank
Oh, how 46 years goes by so quickly. I’m the 15-year-old on the left with my little sister and brother, a family friend and very nice shop owner in Afula. Young American Jews hanging out in an Arab market wearing a keffiyeh we got as souvenirs. Smiles, warmth, post Yom-Kippur war, no fear, no outward hate, and a clear unspoken and perhaps naïve understanding that we are all children of Abraham from the Middle East. A lot has changed.
Yesterday I had two different conversations with two close friends who are musicians. In the morning, coffee with David Broza who is back from Israel, having done about 80 shows in last 4 weeks on the front lines, a different kind of humanitarian work from one of the world’s great “peace fighters”. While he was back in NYC for 5 days of more concerts trying to console many Israeli and other Jewish families, he is going back to serve in his role as front-line troubadour. The musician known as “the Springsteen of Israel” keeps singing “It will be good” which served as an informal national anthem for decades of people looking for hope. His seeing the grassroots protestors on the ground fighting the government before October 7th, become the unofficial organizers of wartime society has given him new hope that all will be good, in time.
The other conversation was with a friend who I had to call for using the word “genocide” when referring to IDF response to Hamas in Gaza. This amazing singer is another creative songwriter who also just wants peace. But using words like that makes him sound like an antisemite, like Roger Waters and others who don’t get it. We agreed that we want the fighting to end. We agree that we need to respect the Palestinian people and find a safe homeland for the millions who also call this land their home. Whether one state, two state, or three states, they deserve a state, period. But where we agree to disagree on something neither of us can answer is how to exterminate Hamas, to rid of deep-seated hate, and not have the collateral damage of innocent civilians. Just ceasing fire, not getting all the rats out of the tunnels, going underneath the hospitals and schools where they are keeping our friends’ hostage and storing weapons, how can that be done without bloodshed. It just can’t. We don’t want more war, but there is no solution. It was like Ezra Klein’s comment in today’s NYT, “It is irreconcilable. But we have to be able to hold irreconcilable perspectives at the same time. That is the only way reconciliation is possible if it is.”
I find that twist of words not easy to swallow. We all want plans, easy to digest formulas, treaties, truths to be able engage with each other. But it isn’t that simple. And the information flow to the public gets harder every day to understand truth from fiction. Opinions become fact, AI alters images and photos and disinformation becomes truth. Challenges abound.
Check out this letter I just felt compelled to write to our staff (although I am not sure I am sending it after a long internal debate with HR and other managers), to address what has been a large amount of call-outs (staff calling in sick) and some even quitting because of a benefit we are hosting this weekend for an organization supporting war trauma in Israel. The conflict is affecting our staff, it has spread around the globe like a virus we finally just got rid of. Oy.
Dear Staff,
City Winery has always provided a stage for the free expression of ideas. We have always cared very much about supporting causes by doing benefits for local schools, cancer research, hunger, ailing artists, etc. We supported the Ukrainians when Russia attacked, we supported the people of Puerto Rico or New Orleans after a hurricane, Japan after a Tsunami, Fires in California, among many many other humanitarian causes.
The Israel/Palestine issue and conflict and the event we are hosting on Sunday I know is on everyone’s minds and people feel very passionate about it. This conflict goes back thousands of years and has been one of the subjects of my annual Downtown Seder for 30 years—addressing the importance of respecting the Palestinian people and for Israel to not be hypocritical in their treatment of their neighbors. We truly all are decedents of Abraham. Most Israeli’s and I believe our entire staff, our customers, and New Yorkers feel the prime minister of Israel should not run the State of Israel and most Israeli’s want to bring peace to the conflict. At the same time Hamas is a hateful terrorist organization that simply wants death to all Jews, period. It is not fighting for the people of Gaza, it is using them as human shields as a military strategy. That is disgusting.
Now how to solve this horrible conflict, how to go into tunnels purposely built under hospitals and schools, to both target the terrorists and rescue the hostages, is very challenging and nobody has a good answer. But this conflict has spilt over to communities across the world. And violence around this has come to New York, Chicago, Nashville, Atlanta and all of our Cities. And we will always support the humanitarian needs, support the anti-hate, anti-semetic, anti-racial, islamophobia, anti-gay, anti-anything that does not allow the freedom to choose who someone is, how they act, and to be able to live free not under the domination of anyone else. That is our political and humanistic philosophy.
For that reason, we respect if you don’t want to work a particular event because of your beliefs. We respect that. We just want you know City Winery’s reasons for trying to make the world a better place and thus, support many causes, many sides, and organizations that we hope will bring people together in peace.
Sincerely,
Michael Dorf
Founder & CEO
Anyway, I will stop writing this substack now, sadly this subject has been written about from the first ancient scrolls and most likely will be part of stories for thousands of years of future writings in formats we can’t yet imagine. Until then, Make Wine Not War. To Life, L’chaim.
Michael, Your commentary speaks to my heart as a Macedonian-Bulgarian son of immigrants who recall the actions of King Boris III in Sofia to save the lives of 50,000 of our Jewish brothers and sisters who were legal residents of Bulgaria. King Boris lost his own life over the decision to "lock arms with our Jewish brothers and sisters, and that no Jewish person shall board the deportation trains." Hitler murdered King Boris for opposing him. As a fellow musician, entertainment professional and human being, I stand for Israel and against the appalling rise in antisemitism in the United States. Your good heart, indeed, welcoming goodwill to feed others in the celebration of life has not escaped me.
Bravo, Mr. Dorf, Bravo...