A Metaphor of the Middle East-IMPACT: Jewish Boxers in America OPINION
An Aritsts Statement
Producing and executing the production of IMPACT: Jewish Boxers in America was never intended to represent some small microcosm of what is now happening in the Middle East. Far from it. Over the course of production for this half hour film, my research led me to profile some of the all time greatest Jewish boxers that filtered their way to the top of the food chain within American society--specifically the Jewish experience in the sport of professional boxing. However, with the current trends that have been taking place in the Middle East one can not see a correlation between the spirit of the Jewish boxer and the Isreal freedom fighter consisting in Masad, the Isrealie defense forces. My intention for producing IMPACT was to establish some kind of insight nationally here in the US that might in some prolific way protect our American President Barack Obama from harms way should another Kennedy type assasination plot be lurking in the wings from some right wing supremacist group that is still fighting at preventing another man of color or diversity to ever endure the office of our great nations leaders....So much of what I discovered through the production of the project led me to believe that the Ron Lipton's--Jewish Boxer and victimized police officer for the towns of Verona, NJ scenario now symbolizes what so many people have vowed to do towards Isreal pushing and demanding they receed into the sea never to be seen again. What Ron Lipton endured by fighting off KKK members at his home during the 1970's and defending his family, land, self governing status and the rights of so many blacks during that period symbolizes the same kind of fight much of the Jewish population in Isreal has had to endure in order to keep a nation for the Jewish people-post World War II a Zionist state. The belief that there should and must be a secure home for the Jewish people.
I hope that within time this films IMPACT will be seen as a wakeup call that trying to destroy a race by pushing them into the sea, running them off of a police force or trying to antagonize representatives of the Jewish community will be met with failure. "Masada Shall Not Fall Again" as Cletus Seldin reminds us all of in the film depicting the Jewish mass suicide that took place on Isreals Masada mountain where hundreds of Jews committed suicide at the face of returning to slavery under King Herrod's watch. It is a moment that we must all remember and understand as the importance of what the film describes in the words of those who participated. As I write this passage, Golden Gloves boxing champion Ed Gersh has past away and I fondly remember his wise words of how the world sometimes trys to condemn the Jewish nation during times of desparity and crisis. Perhaps Mr. Gersh would be reveling now as proud to be Jewish than ever before.
What I hope viewers of this project especially non-Jews will walk away with is a better respect in all facets of our lives for the Jewish people knowing that for centuries, similar to the black experience we have endured victimization and consistant hatred in a world where (According to a recent world opinion poll by the Anti Defamation League) 25% of the world still holds some resentment towards Jews or doesn't know what the Holocaust was in the place of global history. Still frightening statistics to consider when Jews around the world still have some fears of another Holocaust happening again. The protection of our
Jewish state and what it means to have in place is somewhat our insurance policy with the world to know there is a place to go if Masada, Nazi Germany, The Spanish Inquisition or a number of other anti Jewish campaigns were ever to happen again. Be it known today that before it were to happen, the Jewish people would not go down without a fight. I hope you afford yourself to be a participant in active discussions as we set out bringing this film to the national public.
Shalom
