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Michael
6/24/2003
05:57:21
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 Subject: Danny Balint
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I saw the movie for the first time last night and I'm still not sure what to make of it all. I tried to watch it objectively, but being Jewish made short order of that.
Danny's plight is nothing new as a child he tries to look at God pragamtically. He doesn't understand the God we've created who demands constent praises and adoration. On the other hand he sees that it's always been the world against the Jews - and if it always been that way, then maybe we are a people who deserve the hatred.
The plot of his life takes a turn when he gravitates to the neo-nazi movement rather than the JDL. Danny sees chaos and he wants order, the doubt in every Jews mind (if we are that bad we deserve what we get), but he takes it all to an extreme. An extreme that will never come to fruition at least not in America.
For me, the crux of the movie was during the court ordered 'sensitivity' training. Danny challenges the older man and asks him why he didn't fight back. That is a very good question and lies within the Jewish heart also - why didn't we fight back. I'm in the process of doing discovery for an essay on this very question - why didn't we fight back during WWII. Obviously we had nothing to lose.
Danny might have a good arguement that embedded somewhere in the Jewish soul is this desire to be on the bottom end of everything. What would we be be without the suffering - what if there was no genocide to hang on to? I have those same thoughts myself - somehow, if you think about it, it makes sense that we do have a faith that carries a rather large pity bag.
When Danny touches the torah, he unleashes the contradictions of his tortured soul - even at this point he could have taken a different path and things would have ended up differently for him.
The ending is everyone's deep seated fear - what if there is nothing after our lives.
One has to feel a degree of pity for Danny - he had potential, he was intelligent and very gifted. Had he stayed on his Jewish path he probably would have become one of the greater Jewish thinkers. Had he lived, he surely would have been convicted of the murder (even though he didn't commit it) and in all probability would have died in the electric chair.
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connie
6/30/2003
01:33:55
| RE: Danny Balint
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i just watched this movie the other night and it is all i can think about all day long...i'm Jewish myself and as far as your statement about the Jewish nation not fighting back....they did. many of them did..not enough though, right? well in todays day and age one will never fully know the gravity of their situation...no matter how much research is done or the countless stories we hear from our grandparents. the holocaust was sick, horrific and very real....the qustion that was posed by danny to the old man was senseless ...should the father have fought back and as a result his little son would have watched his father die with a shot to the head...who the hell do we think we are researching why we didnt fight back...G-d did not choose us to be the ones to be tortured for stealing a carrot for an entire bunk. we do NOT carry a large pity bag...we carry a lot pain and degradation, however, we are a nation that has survived from the beginning of time and will continue...try convincing yourself we dont carry a pity bag and you will. it is an anti-semetic statement, no? we dont need pity from anyone..
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Dena
7/28/2003
17:43:45
| RE: Danny Balint
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In response to Michael:
The reason us Jews have a tendency not to fight back, is because we are not naturally a violent people (unlike some other nations who raise their kids to murder and hate). We believe in SPIRITUALITY. In mind over matter. God has more power than any physical bomb / chemical / murderer (whatever... u name it - He created it!) and therefore by praying regularly, studying our God-given Torah, we are tapping into the ultimate source of protection.
So how does all that praying really help in a real daily threat, as opposed to the more natural methods; recruiting weapons, or rounding up fit and able men to fight-to-the-death, etc... through physical actions...?
God doesn't perform miracles (any more - so that we have free-will "bechiro") eg. us Jews point our Torah at our enemy and a heavenly fire consumes them!!! Instead He works in ways where we can say afterwards, "phew, we were so lucky... in the end..." and explain our survival via a natural phenomenon. eg the General's daughter fell ill and he had to disband his army who were going to attack us... Or a bad thunderstorm / flood prevented an attack... you get the gist...? And for those killed, we believe everything that happens in life was meant to be. So someone or someones who die/s at a certain time and place were destined to die then anyway. No efforts of self-defence would have helped if it was pre-ordained.
And Michael, don't talk on behalf of 'every Jew' "the doubt in every Jews mind (if we are that bad we deserve what we get), ". I don't know any Jews who have the slightest trace of that thought in mind. And I thoroughly disagree. There is a Halacha (Jewish law) "Aisov soneh es yaakov" which is a fact of life. (Vehamaivin yovin). It is what keeps us apart from other nations and prevents complete assimilation. When we forget who we are, the other nations' anti-Semitism reminds us - there is a difference between us and them.
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