Jew Talkin' To Me? 7th October Update with Producer Russell

[00:00:00] To Me, Jew Talkin To Me has been off the air for some time for various reasons. This is kind of the pre-chat before the episode but the episode itself is also just a chat. So I guess everything will become apparent during the episode but we've been thinking

[00:00:18] a lot about what happened in October 7th yesterday. I was in town for the Israel solidarity rally to mark 100 days since the hostages were taken. And I mentioned that now because during the episode, I make a point of the fact that I've not been to any rallies

[00:00:36] this conflict for various security safety reasons but yesterday was when I felt AI was able to get to but be I refelt passionately about because it does feel that with all the arguments about the conflict, human rights, everything that's being banded around all the key words we're hearing.

[00:00:54] It does seem that sometimes the hostages get lost in the conversation so yesterday was important for me to be there but interesting thinking about it because we recorded what you're about to hear a couple of days ago. I sort of conduit myself by actually going to the rally.

[00:01:09] Right, yeah, I unfortunately wasn't able to go because I wasn't well but in Luchemenders, I think at the moment people are looking for opportunities to come together and support each other.

[00:01:20] Even if you have mixed feelings about the detail of everything, you just want to be with people who understand and get it and that's one of the reasons why we decided the time had come to

[00:01:30] bring back due to talk. To me, we had recorded episodes which we put on pause and on hold when we felt people weren't quite ready and we weren't probably quite ready because you also have family in

[00:01:40] Israel but now I think people are looking for ways of feeling connected to choose and if there's one thing that we can display, it's a variety of Jews. Unfortunately one of the Jews we are not

[00:01:51] able to display yet is the wonderful Andy Nymon because we did a live recording with him at the London podcast festival but there was a technical issue on the day which meant that our recording

[00:02:03] did not survive. I think there were other podcasts that had similar sorts of problems but our recording was completely unusable so we weren't able to bring that really lovely episode. However Andy is a munch and he has agreed involunteed in fact to re-record the episode so we

[00:02:20] will sit down with him at some point and bring you the episode when we can. He was absolutely brilliant and the audience really enjoyed it so you've got something great to look forward to

[00:02:30] and we get to do it again. Although I gave him a Russian shunner present that's how long ago it was I gave him a honey cake at the end of the live recording and I think it would be really

[00:02:39] complicated to try and get him another honey cake or whatever festival it will be by then. What's coming up next? Purem, I'll get him a humming test. So I'm not saying we recorded this

[00:02:48] a long time ago but since recording it it has become 5784 and 2024 but we'll bring that episode to you shortly in the meantime the new episodes that we have already recorded will be coming out

[00:03:01] to you in the next week or so so keep an eye on social media for that but we hope you like and appreciate this kind of holding episode that we're putting out not least for the fact that we

[00:03:10] invited Russell on Russell is our producer who often is just in the background doing the shows but here he was part of the show and it meant we didn't really know how to start the episode in

[00:03:21] fortunately he was able to act as an adult and just take control. So thanks very much for joining us and here's the episode. Bye!

[00:04:09] Philip Simon and Rachel Brieger, you'll recognize them and look let's not be around the bush. We haven't brought out any episodes because of the event of October 7th and this will to life after

[00:04:22] that day. It's been a very odd few months for lots of reasons but just because on October the 6th my husband got suddenly taken very ill in an event that seemed like every episode of casualty

[00:04:38] because we had a big family dinner where everyone's having an amazing time and it was to celebrate him being honoured by our synagogue and he made a lovely speech and at that point that's where

[00:04:48] everyone watching it on TV would have gone I.I. something's up so he did his beautiful speech and then ends up in hospital where he had to have open art surgery and they found various other

[00:04:59] things wrong with him but though now he's ironically healthier and it was fantastic probably better than he has in his so you know happy ending to that bit but the journey from that day

[00:05:10] till today was quite hard and obviously October the 7th I was on my phone watching events in Israel unfold in real time and trying to communicate with family members and you need to know

[00:05:22] about Mark and family members who always checking were alive over there so it's taken me some time to process and quite a bit of the room to get to point where I feel that it's okay to be

[00:05:37] chitchatty if that makes sense but yeah but presumably also you were having to protect Mark from the news whilst watching him recover and dealing with doctors and dealing with family that was like

[00:05:49] this period of time where their consultants were like you can't let him know anything that's going on like anything traumatic or whatever and we were having with this sort of secret meetings not in

[00:05:59] a Jews have secret meetings with them but they were actually yes but it was because Jewish doctor so it was trying to look at what's the right thing to do for him what's the right thing to do

[00:06:07] for everyone else and then what was kind of interesting to me is after he was at a point of his recovery where if I okay to work I had a few Jewish gigs and events booked in and the feedback

[00:06:19] that I was getting from the organizers and from people who are planning to attend was that British Jews wanted to get together to kind of commiserate but they didn't want to have a laugh I was

[00:06:29] supposed to have a big show one of the nights and I was hearing from people and it totally that they were saying we want to buy a ticket but we don't want to come but we want to buy a ticket

[00:06:39] but we'll want us to in the bar and just chat or we're going to buy a ticket but we probably won't laugh but the last couple of weeks it's felt a shift for me that people are saying let's do

[00:06:50] stuff let's put stuff on and do it as fundraisers and do it as a supportive thing. Do you mean now they're coming to your show but still not feeling like laughing? I think also something that happened was people certainly in the UK on the comedy circuit became

[00:07:05] very vocal in their support for one side or the other it became a very binary conversation so who was right and who was wrong and that became very difficult as Jewish performers Jewish people because often you're having a conversation with someone who had no actual education

[00:07:21] beyond the Facebook posts that they'd been sharing so I found myself very much withdrawing from social media interactions with people because I was just so disheartened by what I was hearing

[00:07:32] and seeing online and the thought of being in a green room with some of those people and in some cases I have been in green rooms with those people it's incredible how exciting they are in person

[00:07:42] versus online so that was something another reason I guess we took a step back from everything I guess it's not been easy being Jewish in Britain in the last three months I haven't experienced anything personally other than seeing what people who I previously

[00:07:58] respected and sort of highly of have decided to share on their social media feeds and in certain cases I've called people out for posting stuff which I hope has just been ill-thought through

[00:08:12] and is happens to be carelessly antisemitic but it has been really revealing to see what people think and the disdain with which they hold Zionism and state of Israel and then the slippery

[00:08:29] slope into what is essentially just antisemitism I mean just to give an example as a parent there's nothing I like to do more than to fill the time of a weekend between when my children wake up

[00:08:40] and when they go sleep often it used to be taking the kids into London and for many weekends in October and November and December it was actually you know what we were going to town because

[00:08:52] there's a pro Palestinian rally and my kids are young, nine, five and one and obviously the little ones don't understand the nine year old doesn't really understand what's happening other than there's fighting happening in Israel but I didn't want to risk encountering that kind of hostile

[00:09:06] more and see what they were shouting and have to explain what they meant you know and to mean you know oh actually a lot of people don't like Jews and a lot of people don't like Israel

[00:09:16] and my kids have a very hopeful positive view of being Jewish and of Israel and once visit and stuff and it became you know in that way my life was impacted you know luckily I haven't lost any

[00:09:31] body I haven't had any body called up into the army but yeah it's certainly other than the sort of tragic events of the 7th or October I feel everything has changed I think it's interesting

[00:09:43] there when you say there are people that hate Jews and people that hate Israel for me it's the fact of a now connected you know most people I know hate the Israeli government and the actions

[00:09:54] of Netanyahu yet by being Jewish it's like you are a representative of the Israeli people and that is very difficult when the UK and America invaded Iraq they are Christian countries we didn't see

[00:10:07] every Christian being threatened or made to feel scared on streets because there were people saying put the Christians in the bin my power the Christians so it just feels very different and then you think

[00:10:17] about things like Jews don't count you know David Badeel's book and how relevant some of that sadly is this is the first I'm I've not gone to a piece rally I've never been to a

[00:10:27] pro-Israel rally I've only ever been to a piece rally and I didn't go this time because I didn't feel safe doing so I've got children now and it feels a bit there's a bit more at stake

[00:10:37] I guess personally but I didn't go because I didn't feel it was something I could safely do because the difference in the rallies that you're seeing you know no one in the pro-Israel rally

[00:10:48] whatever you want to call it no one's wearing masks no one's climbing on statues and setting off fireworks there's just a massive difference in how people are conducting themselves and it feels fearful and then you've got other people gaslighting anyone who claims that there is

[00:11:04] anything negative happening so it just feels like a very difficult time to be Jewish because I was only talking about it much at the moment anyway on stage but now I really look at the audience

[00:11:13] and think do I want to go down that road is it worth it? So that's really interesting to me because you know like when I first started coming there didn't do Jewish stuff at all and it was when I

[00:11:21] started doing Jewish stuff that things kind of took off for me and then when all this happened when I first had a few gigs back I was kind of wondering what do I do because my whole intro

[00:11:30] is introducing myself as a Jew and then I thought I'm just gonna do my thing because it's finally it's jokes it's not political it references me and what I look like and my life that's

[00:11:41] all there is to it so I just did my normal set and in the interval these people from the audience came up to me and said we're Jewish we've been feeding so isolated this is the first time

[00:11:52] we've been out you know since we were this kicked off we just felt we had to get up the house and we came to the pub and there was this going on and we thought we'd come down and when we saw

[00:12:00] you with your star of David talking about your Jewishness and you were just relaxed about it it was just like a normal part of what you were saying it made us feel less alone and I just thought

[00:12:10] well that made me feel less alone you know to me and so I just thought well I'm just gonna do my thing now when I said I'd not talking about it in the moment I'm not taking chunks out of my set

[00:12:20] I wasn't doing much Jewish material anyway but I'm now not even thinking about dipping into it so much I've seen some great comics who have been in stone his opening line is funny time to be

[00:12:31] Jewish and then does a lovely bit which is harmless about being Jewish at the moment and the I think Joe Jacobs does loads Josh Harry does quite a bit and you know he actively gets his mug

[00:12:43] and duffet the star of David out when he goes on stage a three former guests from our show and they are three people I think who are doing exactly what they should be doing which is just

[00:12:53] carrying on as normal proudly talking about things they're talking about but isn't it sad that we have to look at the circuit or look at audiences and clubs and go is that okay it's really

[00:13:05] just thinking about the editorial of the show and what goes into it our first question often is what kind of do I use and I have been minded of what Andy Nymons said in the lost episode

[00:13:18] of Jeet talking to me we asked him what kind of do you and he said I am a proud Jew I am a proud one and I would say that I have felt more than ever to be a proud Jew recently and whether that's

[00:13:30] being goded into it because of what people have said to me I'm lucky enough to work with a lot of people who are Jewish and who are forthright in the Judaism and that can take any form you know

[00:13:41] I mean I'm not more religious than than I was but I am thinking more open probably I think I'm more willing to share my views and that kind of thing and just to speak to Philip's point what I've

[00:13:53] been surprised about or what's become clear is the assumptions that people make about us as Jews which are unhelpful, at best and dangerous at worst which are your Jewish so you support the Israeli government and you support what's happening to the Palestinian people in Gaza

[00:14:14] and I don't and I don't think many people do and I think you know well this isn't the forum for in that political discussion surprise but it is that thing I used to get a really angry about

[00:14:26] the assumption the other way from other Jews when I was growing up where it used to be that you were expected as a Jew by other Jews to give full-thritid support Israel and I used to go like well

[00:14:37] I'm not sure I can and people you would look down upon for that certainly I was or I felt I was I think they've rich from the CST said anti-Semitism is a light sleeper and I've been really

[00:14:48] surprised at people who I know or people in the public eye just saying things that are just anti-Semitic and how triggered I have felt by those things and I haven't I've never felt those I've never felt

[00:15:01] those things before in my life I've lived in this country Britain the UK since the mid-80s and I just never felt less awkward as a Jew I mean I obviously feel very awkward all the time that's

[00:15:12] much less you know there's just a creeping apprehension that I've never felt before and I'm not sure it's going to go away anytime soon I've always been quite naive I realize because I'm one of these

[00:15:24] people that doesn't immediately go oh that's how to submit it how they are they to the point where even when we did Jura Rama in Edinburgh one year and someone carved a swastika on the tabletop

[00:15:36] that was in the green room area or the backstage area I was the one saying yeah but they did it outside of the show times and they might not have known because it was a nightclub that made

[00:15:46] they were just drawing swastika because they draw swastikers they didn't necessarily know there was a show on called Jura Rama because the publicity was on the others whatever I was that person desperately trying to go no maybe it's not automatic but now I realize maybe I was just

[00:16:01] completely naive and everyone hates us you know my mum she runs a girl guide company and whenever they organise events on the Saturdays she's like well we can't take our girls because it's a Jewish company therefore they must be anti-Semitic for legal reasons I have to point

[00:16:15] the health that the girl guides don't hate Jews they are bringing out a pickling badge though which is what it works towards I think it's really interesting I think that's the David Badeel point

[00:16:25] though is it's the Jews don't count nobody thinks about Jews having to attend stuff on Shabbat I've been talking about with Jewish friends in TV but how we feel forgotten and how we

[00:16:36] allowed ourselves to be forgotten over the years and I myself as a producer have had to attend shoots on Saturdays and Shabbat you know there's been stuff booked in on on Yom Kippur and Roshashana and it's been incredibly difficult because also because of the sort of

[00:16:54] inherited desire to not want to rock the boat I haven't said anything I haven't said anything previously because I don't want to be that guy I don't want to be that Jew who goes by the way you've

[00:17:04] booked something in on a Jewish festival can we please move the whole production including the diaries of all of these ex-to-producers and the highly paid talent to another

[00:17:13] day so that I can go and pray to my God and I have wants to do it but Nor has anyone gone is it okay there's just been done when you talk about being forgotten I was going to feel it yesterday

[00:17:26] that I feel that every time I turn on the radio whatever subject they're talking about they bring around to Jews and I just don't want to be the subject of every single conversation on any

[00:17:37] in a moment I find it really irritating that on the same day I was listening to two different channels and there was a discussion about obesity which brought in something to do with Gaza

[00:17:49] there was one about the flooding going on in bit to bingland and they said were there only people who experienced something similar to those are the Gaza and civilians or we're going to have a

[00:17:57] phone in to see what Jewish people should do about this about what people think about Israel there's so much going on in the world and I'm not saying that this isn't important are people shouldn't care and people should care about civilians in any country who

[00:18:10] are experiencing traumatic events that's important and that's part of being human but there's many traumatic events going on and that absolute hyperfocus in the UK on this one event and on Jews in the UK and our response is written whether we're the right kind of

[00:18:26] Jews in the right kind of response it's absolutely exhausting I think there's no doubt that the news has to report on what's going on in Gaza and what's happening to the Palestinian people

[00:18:41] but are we as Jews response before it? No I think one thing I did also want to start on slightly was the Stephen Fry alternative Christmas message if I'm not watching it it's worth going to

[00:18:52] watch I believe it's on the channel for website is that right? Yeah I'm so too quite think in YouTube but it was a message of peace a message of come on guys give us a break and one of the first things

[00:19:03] he says is I am a Jew and at that point you could hear years and years of fandom going what? He didn't such a gentle and respectful way and you know said there are horrible things going we need to be

[00:19:17] sad about but also this is what's happening to British Jews and the reaction was you didn't say enough about Gaza is disgusting it says that like he just dealt with such horrible backlash and all he said

[00:19:30] was lovely stuff. As a Jew there's an inherent feeling that what is going on and what's being said around you even if it's not to you is worrying like when you see people sharing stuff that is

[00:19:42] just deeply wrong it's AI it's fake news but it's getting traction or you just get the more insidious like lazy anti-semitism that's getting shared by people who you know or by broadcasters

[00:19:57] or by you see on platforms that you've previously felt comfortable on it I think there is an impulse irrespective of the author level of religious adherence or whatever to go whoa everyone just

[00:20:07] back the truck up I'm Jew and you're not being very nice or kind and you're making your making this country you're making this social media platform you're making my life more uncomfortable and I think

[00:20:20] that is me as the thing when he said I'm still in front of an I am a Jew the producer and he was like let's just do a campaign where you just say your name and you just go I am a Jew there was a book I am

[00:20:29] Jew issue which is inspired by the last words of Daniel Pearl who was a journalist who was murdered and those were his final words and in that book they had passages written by Variety of Jews

[00:20:41] in the public eye and the starting point would have been I am Jewish and then explained what that meant to them so maybe there's need to be another campaign like that because going back

[00:20:51] to your point earlier about being a proud Jew I'm sure there are a lot of Jews who are still just in different Jews I'm probably one of them I'm not sure that this has made me any more proud to be

[00:21:02] Jewish than I was on October 6 I'm more aware of my Judaism and more aware of my status in this society as a result of what I've seen but it's not made me go to cinema anymore it's not made

[00:21:13] me like the candles anymore it's connected me with my people I guess that's the joy of what we do because we have people who have had some quite complicated relationships with their Jewishness

[00:21:26] over the years talking about what that means and I think that's a joy and a privilege of Jew talking to me and certainly the ones that we had recorded that will be bringing out after this

[00:21:38] then include people who didn't know they were Jewish or they knew they were Jewish but their parents made various choices that impact on their Judaism and everyone's got a lack of different

[00:21:47] stories was interesting and it is what takes it away from it just being about a religion and I think that is very joyful in this very difficult time so I'm pleased that we are going to be

[00:22:00] bringing out some of the episodes that we've pre-recorded with starting to record new ones now and I'm finding that people want to do it they want to tell this story because they want to

[00:22:08] feel that connection that you're talking about yeah and it's worth pointing out some of the episodes that were going out in the next couple of weeks were recorded before October 7 which is

[00:22:17] again one of the reasons we paused a little bit before restarting things not just because of the technical hiccup with and is episode which we are gutted about but also just giving us as we said

[00:22:29] earlier the breathing space but in the next few weeks we will put out some more episodes and you'll see more of us on social media talking about the show and what we've got coming up

[00:22:40] so do you want to end this? Yeah sure I was going to say at that point well thanks very much for listening don't forget to follow us on social media at Jew talking without the G. See I'll

[00:22:50] remember to have never even said it before you will see thank you very much and take care