Jamie's Lunch Journal

I'd been joking about this contest for weeks: First prize -- lunch with Kastner! Second prize -- dinner with Kastner!

But an interested group of folks who didn't know better wrote some quite moving essays -- extremely gratifying since, second to world domination, my hope with this film has always been to provoke discussion -- and two were chosen as winners.

Trying to stay on theme and not drag me too far from home, the contest and website's brilliant producer, Liane Kotler, chose one of the few delis remaining in downtown Toronto. Though Jewish in name and to some degree menu, they are now part of a large corporation known among other things for fine ham products. Still, said corporation, in an incredible act of generosity, offered to host our award lunch -- brunch, technically, as all our schedules dictated -- and all we had to do was not mention their name in association with my controversially-titled film.

I arrived late to find the two winners Nigel Howcroft, a lawyer from Port Stanley, and Thalia Charney, a South-African born singer and naturopath, were already well into coffee with the website producer Liane and designer Ken. My presence seemed almost incidental, so, as quickly as possibly, I turned the conversation to the only topic on which I might vaguely be considered an authority -- me and my film.

Since these kind folks had actually written essays to win the pleasure of my company there was none of the usual groaning and eye-rolling -- at least not yet. And indeed, having crafted essays to make their way past the scores of essay competitors to make it to this table, darned if Nigel and Thalia were going to sit through my blabbing without getting to their key question -- "So are you Jewish?" -- the mildest patina of shame utterly failing to mask their enthusiasm. I asked them the same question about their ethnic backgrounds to which they replied: "Why do you want to know?" Laughter all round. My eyes meanwhile scouring the menu.

For a celebratory meal, my companions ordered rather modestly -- Nigel a couple of sensible poached eggs, Thalia turned out to be vegetarian, so an amalgamation of what passes for healthy sides in the modern downtown corporate deli were kindly assembled... And on we noshed.

Between shovelfuls of my double corned beef hash and eggs, I answered questions about how I chose some of the characters for the film and how some were deleted. Thankfully, with the website, interested viewers can enjoy material I had to painfully extract from the doc (see deleted scenes). So much of the film was created "on the fly," and we all enjoyed the tales from the field. Of particular interest to Nigel was my comment at Auschwitz. ("This place should be blown up.") That led to a philosophical discussion about what to do with such hallowed ground. Does preserving a concentration camp desecrate the memory of those who died there? Or, does it keep it alive? Do we need the evidence of the camp's existence to remember what happened there? I explained that since I was having such a visceral reaction to the being at the camp, that perhaps my comments at the time were not as well processed as the discussion at our contest lunch. Boy, maybe for my next doc, I should have an essay contest before I start shooting.

Thalia was curious about my upcoming projects, one which may be about the political spectrum of political affiliations: What does it mean to be left wing today? Thalia talked about her brother, an anarchist now attending law school. Hmmmm... might be an interesting character to include. Wouldn't you like to know more about that doc? Well perhaps another contest in conjunction with my next doc could provoke you to write an essay. You too can witness my lousy manners of talking and eating at the same time.

By the end of brunch we'd pretty well roughed out a roadmap for world peace and were moving on to the problems of other galaxies...

So you're probably wondering: Where exactly did we have lunch? Well, why do you want to know?

Contest Winners

Thalia Charney of Toronto wrote:

Kike Like Me

The title for Jamie Kastners documentary A Kike Like Me can be explained by the old Yiddish proverb "Better to laugh than to cry." It is human to put ourselves down in a protective race to beat the others to it. As Jews we are no different. In fact, it is those very qualities that we find endearing in one another that we use against one another.

In the revealing documentary Kike Like Me, Jamie Kastner shows on the one hand his humor and resilience in the face of countless absurd encounters of anti-Semitism throughout his travels to Israel and Europe. But behind every Jewish comedian is a dose of painful reality. This showed itself clearly in the culmination of Jamie's trip in Auschwitz and his final sobering moment where anger replaces humor and he remarks that the memorial should be burned down along with all those responsible. He is ultimately distraught that no matter what happens, nothing ever changes, and a Jew as far as others are concerned is always a Jew.

We are by nature guilty until proven innocent in the eyes of the world. Our need to prove ourselves has driven us up to the top in medicine, Hollywood, science and the arts. But ironically, these very accomplishments are turned against us to reinforce old stereotypes and prejudices.

As Jews we have an uncanny ability to use humour in the face of our Jewishness and all that it means to us. While Jews account for less than 2.5% of the USA's population, approximately 70% of the USA's working comedians are Jewish. For this reason Jewish humour has had a remarkable imprint in 20th Century America. We have Woody Allen, Jerry Lewis, Jerry Seinfeld, Bob Hope, Weird Al, Allan Sherman, Jack Benny, George Burns, Adam Sandler, Billy Crystal, Howie Mandel, The Three Stooges and so many more. Being Jewish is a love-hate relationship. Most of us can relate to a certain Je ne sais quoi special feeling of belonging to this very small yet incredibly vibrant, successful and notoriously religious cultural group. We have our bagels, the horah, Klezmer music, bubbies and zadies, kibbitzing, Yiddish, dreidels, and all those things that are a source of pride, laughter, inspiration and sacredness.

But then there is the Jewish complex wrapped up and served with a side of guilt and oy! We are defined by chutzpah on the one hand and neurosis and insecurity on the other hand. A classic example of our love-hate manifests in the Jewish singles scene where so many profile themselves by using the description "not your typical Jew." Jewish is good but too Jewish is not. This says it all! And yet we are incredibly thirsty for a little Jew in a sea of goy, going crazy over Adam Sandlers Chanukah song as a breath of fresh air in a sea of Christmas frenzy.

Whether we call ourselves Kikes, Yids, Red Sea Pedestrians or the like, we are singing the same old song, one of love and hate for ourselves as well as our seemingly unending predicament of uniqueness and inability to shake off our Jewish curse, the one that seems to guarantee an eternal source of prejudice and ridicule but also an eternal source of pride as this chosen people seem to time and time again beat all of the odds despite everything, even the hideous holocaust.

Nigel Howcroft of Port Stanley wrote:

Do you believe, said Candide, that men have always massacred each other as they do to-day ? Do you believe, said Martin, that hawks have always eaten pigeons when they have found them? Yes, without doubt, said Candide. Well then, said Martin, if hawks have always had the same character why should you imagine that men may have changed theirs?

-Voltaire

I am interested in, and concerned about, ethnic hatred mainly because it is at the root of so many of the world's biggest problems. If only we could eradicate ethnic intolerance, there would be few if any wars and there would be much less violence generally. There would also be less poverty, famine and disease. This is because without ethnic intolerance the developed world would likely show much more compassion toward the undeveloped world than it now does.

It helps to watch provoking films and to think and talk about the problem, but I do not expect a solution any time soon. I say this in part because the issue has plagued humankind throughout history. Even more compelling than that is the fact that the problem is probably intricately connected with human nature itself.

Ethnic intolerance is so complicated that in order to understand it you have to understand how the human mind works, and how humans perceive their surroundings, and that is very difficult. Every human being has a distorted view of the universe because perception is a largely subjective thing. Perception depends only in part on what (if anything) is "out there." The way the world appears to each person depends also on each individual's mindset, which is made up of a very elaborate series of assumptions and biases. By the very manner in which we are hardwired, therefore, each person is in a sense "prejudiced." We "prejudge" our surroundings because we do not have the necessary faculties to do anything else.

Ethnic prejudice is a species of, and arises, in exactly the same way as the more general kind of prejudice described above. I postulate, therefore, that nearly all people harbour racial, ethnic national and other sorts of prejudice. And they will always do so.

That individuals harbour ethnic prejudices is not to say that the prejudice will necessarily be negative. The distortion could be positive. But it is more likely to be negative. This may be because we tend to view things connected with ourselves in a more favourable light than things unconnected with ourselves: we naturally cheer for our own team, schools and countries. This slips easily into developing a distaste for things not connected with ourselves and that, I submit, in turn becomes ethnic hatred. Sometimes it seems that we like or even need something to hate or to blame for our own problems or inadequacies.

HONOURABLE MENTIONS

• Amy Allan of Morrisburg
• Aviva Atlani of London
• Agata Ivanna Pogorelsky of Toronto