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| -Great Cultural Revolution |
| Interview: Blacklisted for Israel support, author draws strength from Holocaust survivor mom |
| 2024-11-30 |
| [IsraelTimes] Bestselling writer Lisa Barr – targeted by hecklers and review bombers – vows that though she wants to ‘curl up in a ball’ after Oct. 7, she will ‘fight back constructively’. Bestselling author Lisa Barr never expected to call her newest novel “eerily relevant” to modern times. Historical fiction, “The Goddess of Warsaw” is a compelling tale of Warsaw Ghetto resistance, old Hollywood and revenge as a final means toward justice. In the wake of the October 7, 2023 Hamas onslaught on southern Israel, Barr, a former Jerusalem Post reporter, found herself on a list of “Zionist authors” to be blacklisted and the subject of heckling detractors. Over a year later, Barr said she sees common denominators between the past and present on a daily basis. “When October 7 happened and I was in the throes of edits for this book… Well, a lot of writers get to escape in their work, but for me, there was no escape,” Barr said in a phone interview with The Times of Israel. In recent months, there has been a veritable crescendo of antisemitism within the literary establishment. Author Sally Rooney and more than 1,000 writers and publishing professionals recently signed a letter pledging to boycott Israeli cultural institutions that “are complicit or have remained silent observers of the overwhelming oppression of Palestinians.” Signatories pledge to not work with Israeli publishers, festivals, literary agencies and publications that are “complicit in violating Palestinian rights,” including operating “discriminatory policies and practices” or “whitewashing and justifying Israel’s occupation, apartheid or genocide.” Unexpectedly, Barr said she found herself taking strength from the character she’d created. “The Goddess of Warsaw” is a page-turner telling the fictional story of Bina Blonski, a Jewish actress-turned-resistance fighter in the Warsaw Ghetto, and her transformation into Lena Browning, a Hollywood femme fatale with a secret past who uses her time off-screen to hunt Nazis and execute vigilante justice. “I have drawn strength from Lena, born Bina,” Barr said. “I’ve drawn strength from her in everything, from what I am writing to what I am living in my real life. I am choosing not to be silent about what is going on now, just like my character made those same choices.” Related: Sally Rooney 10/31/2024 In letter, over 1,000 reject attempts ‘to boycott, scapegoat Jewish and Israeli authors’ Sally Rooney 10/30/2024 Sally Rooney among 1,000 authors urging boycott of Israeli cultural institutions Sally Rooney 05/17/2022 How a New Pro-Israel Group Aims to Sway N.Y. Elections |
| Posted by:trailing wife |
| #1 Susan Sarandon says she’s blacklisted in Hollywood after comments on Jews and Israel |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2024-11-30 09:31 |