Movie buffs around the world love the anti-hero of Joel and Ethan Coen's 1998 cult hit The Big Lebowski. The misadventures of the middle-aged early-1990s Los Angeles-based deadbeat, portrayed brilliantly by Jeff Bridges, and a supporting cast of companions and adversaries, has been celebrated around the world via a fan community tradition called the "Lebowski Fest," which has been hosted regularly since 2002 in locales from Kentucky to California.
Now Israel is getting its first Lebowski-styled party to celebrate the cult phenomenon, with the event's entertainment including bowling, white Russians, plenty of Credence tunes over the speakers, a costume contest and yes, a screening of the beloved movie. The party is the brainchild of Jerusalem's Eliyahu Sidikman, who says the Holy City's concentration of Lebowski fans makes holding Israel's first Lebowski Fest here a no-brainer. "There's a large Anglo population - and a lot of Israelis who are very up on it and can even quote you from the movie," he tells GoJerusalem.com. ---
"Let me explain something to you. Um, I am not Mr. Lebowski. You're Mr. Lebowski. I'm the Dude. So that's what you call me. You know, that or uh, His Dudeness, or uh, Duder, or El Duderino if you're not into the whole brevity thing."
The satirical image below is a take on iconic American illustrator Norman Rockwell's self-portrait The issues it raises, however are deadly serious.
May 20 is the first anniversary of Everybody Draw Mohammed Day, which was conceived by Seattle illustrator Molly Norris to champion free speech but became yet another symbol of its curtailment. Professor and commentator Karen Lugo has urged Americans to remember Norris as "inspiration in our cause to never accommodate threats of retaliation for exercising our fundamental liberties."
Everybody Draw Mohammed Day serves as a critical case study of the forces that imperil Americans' ability to speak openly about Islam. Indeed, examination of its full context reveals almost all of the elements that contribute to this anti-freedom trend. In order of their appearance:
Groveling capitulation. Comedy Central, the network that carries South Park, quickly proved the show's point. It censored the follow-up episode by placing black boxes over images of Muhammad and bleeping utterances of his name.
Islamist obfuscation. Ibrahim Hooper of CAIR played the conspiracy-to-defame-Islam card with respect to Revolution Muslim, opining that "most Muslims suspect they were set up only to make Muslims look bad." (So "phony" are these Islamists that the author of the aforementioned threats later pleaded guilty to attempting to join the jihad in Somalia.)
Fear and hesitancy. Dismayed by Comedy Central's actions, Norris created a poster, with anthropomorphic household items claiming to be true likenesses of Muhammad, to advertise a fictional event in which everyone would sketch him on May 20 to "water down the pool of targets." When the idea went viral, Norris got spooked and distanced herself from her own art, but countless websites followedthrough on the concept.
Government and media fecklessness. Soon after cleric Anwar al-Awlaki placed Norris on an assassination list, Seattle Weeklyreported in September that "there is no more Molly" because an FBI warning had prompted her to leave her job and go into hiding — "without the government picking up the tab" for her protection. So much for defending free speech. Equally alarming, most mainstream media organs expressed littleoutrage over the plight of Norris, preferring instead to drop the issue down the memory hole.
In short, the events surrounding Everybody Draw Mohammed Day are a microcosm of how freedom slowly dies. Only by familiarizing ourselves with this process and comprehending its impact on real human beings can we gather the intellectual and moral resources necessary to keep others — and ultimately Western civilization itself — from sharing this cartoonist's unhappy fate. That is precisely why we must remember Molly Norris, today and every day.
Ok, I lied: Benji Lovitt rips both humor and aliya a new one for Israel's 63 Independence Day:
Soon after making aliya 5 years ago, American immigrant Benji Lovitt began compiling slightly warped, but endearing aspects of what he loves about his adopted country. Here is his fourth annual list.
7 I love that you can talk to a complete stranger for five minutes, ask if his sister is single, and not get punched in the face.
8 I love how you can talk on a first date about how many kids you want to send to the army.
9 I love that during the summer, you could hike 40 kilometers underground and somehow still end up at an ice cream truck.
10 I love that I contacted Pelephone via Twitter, and within 24 hours, they had arranged for Ori, the customer service guy, to come to my house to pitch me their deal. (By the way, if you’re ever entering a hotel for a Twitter event and security asks you what you’re there for, just lie. Nothing sounds dorkier than “Tweet-up.”)
