It's My Birthday and I'll Cry if I Want To

🎁 💗 You're invited to my party. You bring the cake. 🎈🎂

In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Dear BEVPers,

Thank you for coming each week to read BEVP film and TV posts. I very much value your weekly, monthly or even quarterly visits to my humble abode. Please keep on coming and if you like what you read, restack (if you’re on Substack), and/or just do the share link thing if you’re on other socials. Plus, I’ve made it even easier for you by adding a BEVP share button right here, right now:

This week, I saw some great films and I’ll be back next week to speak to them.

In the meantime, I’m sharing out the real work I’ve been focusing on in the past week. A few months back, I started an interview series called “3 Questions With…” on LinkedIn dedicated to “short interviews with interesting people doing good work.” I’ve come across so many interesting people in my professional life (and personal life, of course) that I decided having an excuse to shine a light on them was really not that much work at all. It’s fun.

This week’s post is not fun however.

It’s more serious in nature and that’s because try as I may, I can’t escape the present reality for Jewish people and the tragic events that are happening in Israel resulting in Holocaust-level deaths to Jews. Some of the questions I’ve been pondering over in the past few days include, “Can my kids safely go to a Jewish gathering at their school, temple, [fill in the blank] or will it be targeted by terrorists living in the U.S. based on our ethnic/religious identity?” “Will Hezbollah join Hamas in fulfilling their mission to kill all Jews and how can we prevent this?” As I write this post, Israel is being attacked by Lebanon and the conflict is escalating. There will be more bloodshed. So one question can be checked off the list…

But back to the point of the quote I started with in this post: “Why is there so much silence in the face of terror and a Jewish holocaust?" “Where are our allies?”

Thankfully, putting some of these questions into movement by way of a thoughtful discussion with my interviewee, Molly, helped to bring some context and actionable insights into the fold. It’s what we know to do when things get bad. Try and build a bridge to better.

I hope you hear Molly’s words, internalize them and if you’re so inclined, share them. The intent here is towards clarity and action. It starts with discomfort.

💡“Our allies can play an important role whether in the workplace or on social media and help us call what happened on October 7 exactly what it was…a terrorist attack. Don’t talk around it. Acknowledge it. Name it. Will it be uncomfortable? Absolutely. But we can’t escape discomfort right now. All of the conflict that has resulted post October 7 is in direct response to that one, indisputable, deplorable fact so please help create clarity and more importantly, back us up when we have tough conversations within our networks about how to respond.” - Molly Stock, Storyteller & Community Activist

🗣For the latest installment of “3 Questions With…” I sat down with Molly Stock, a storyteller for the U.S. Business Unit at Takeda and also a Jewish American. Molly is someone I came to know via a mutual contact, also a gifted writer,  in the past week. 

In reading Molly’s post on LinkedIn, just days after the atrocious acts of terror inflicted by Hamas on Israeli Jewish citizens, when many of us were struggling to find the words to share, and if I’m being honest, worried about how people might react to any words, I was struck by the poise, eloquence and courageous words Molly shared.

In the days since, when I log on to LinkedIn, I look to see what content Molly is supporting and the brave voices she is elevating and helping to amplify through her comments and reposts. They are a beacon of hope and serve to bring to the forefront, the necessary attention to the dire situation for Jews across the world, but especially in Israel.

📈Around the world in the past week, incidents of antisemitism have been on the rise. The ADL broadcasted a select list of antisemitic incidents occurring since 10/7 here. Unfortunately this is not just in the here and now.  Antisemitic incidents in the U.S. rose 36% in 2022, an annual audit by the Anti-Defamation League shows. The report, tracked 3,697 incidents of harassment, vandalism and assault targeting Jewish people and communities last year, with the highest reported #s since 1979.

🎁 It’s my birthday and Molly’s words are my present to you all (and myself). There’s no greater gift than reading thoughtful work and being compelled to act in brave and perhaps uncomfortable ways - both in the discourse of our daily lives and by coming out to condemn acts of terror and speak to unfathomable truths.

For if not you, then who?

In this way, I’m reminded of a popular poem in recent days, published in 1946 in a post-war confessional prose by the German Lutheran pastor Martin Niemöller:

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—
     Because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—
     Because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
     Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

So with that, please welcome Molly Stock to the "3 Questions With…” newsletter by way of BEVP. 🎤 💧