Breaking the Silence...in the U.S.

The "Breaking the Silence" photo exhibition, which created such a stir when it opened in 2004, and again when it to Europe in 2005 and 2006, is finally coming to the U.S. In fact, it’s more than the original exhibition, which focused exclusively on Hebron.  This exhibition features photos and testimonies collected from soldiers who served throughout the Territories. It should be an unforgettable experience, no matter your perspective on the conflict.  

Just when I got started this summer writing here at Daily Kos, I got off track again as soon as we got hom.  Coming back to Washington and "real life" has taken me too far from my keyboard, though no further from the emotions or issues of the summer spent in Jerusalem.  And I hope that I am not breaking too many rules of etiquette by posting this, but thought it would be of real interest to the many folks engaged so deeply on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.  

The "Breaking the Silence" photo exhibition, which created such a stir when it opened in 2004, and again when it went to Europe in 2005 and 2006, is finally coming to the U.S.  In fact, it’s more than the original exhibition, which focused exclusively on Hebron.  This exhibition features photos and testimonies collected from soldiers who served throughout the Territories.  It should be an unforgettable experience, no matter your perspective on the conflict.

The exhibition will have 2 stops in the U.S. — Philadelphia and Cambridge/Boston. Two members of Breaking the Silence will be with the exhibition in both cities (different folks in each city) and also doing events around the regions (Yehuda Shaul, the founder of Breaking the Silence, will be in DC a few times while the exhibition is in Philadelphia). Whenever you visit, one of the soldiers will be there to explain what you are seeing (and what you are not seeing) in the photos.  

In case your memory is hazy, stories about the original exhibition from the Washington Post and CNN.com may help jog your memories from when this group first got going.

Since the exhibition first launched in Tel Aviv in 2004 (and ultimately hung in the Knesset itself for a time), the group has collected nearly 500 testimonies from IDF soldiers still doing, or just recently finished, their initial service. The group has also continued to work to change the situation in Hebron; indeed, my piece from the summer about my visit to Hebron, "The Missing," was about a trip I took with leaders from Breaking the Silence.

If you search around the net, you should be able to find a flyer for each city.  I would also like to make mention of what should be a fascinating event at the Washington DC Jewish Community Center.  The event is entitled "What Makes an Army Jewish? Ethics and Tradition: The IDF in an Age of Checkpoints, Village Sweeps and Targeted Killings" and will feature Yehuda from Breaking the Silence, an American who volunteered for the IDF and wrote a book called "Lonely Soldier: The Memoir of an American in the Israeli Army," and an Orthodox educator.  You can find more info about this specific event here.

There is much more I could write about this (and if there are people reading this who saw the original exhibition, please comment), but for now, I will only ask that those who see this and live within reach of Philadelphia and Boston do what they can to see the exhibition and to tell as many others as they can about it. These are Israeli soldiers from all sectors and aspects of Israeli society coming together solely to reveal what they did, what they saw, what they became as occupiers. The impact on Palestinian and Israeli societies is clear, is painful, and is something that screams for change. The question, then, is what will the impact be on American, and in particular American Jewish, society. Not least because of the occupation the U.S., and American soldiers, are currently carrying out.

As the exhibition goes on, I hope to write more, and hope that those who go see it will also write about their experience, and their (hopefully) broken silence.