GREENSBORO — In “Bent Toward Justice,” Dr. Steven Feldman’s self-described “thinly-autobiographical” novel, a leading character talks about Israel welcoming Palestinians back to land the two groups can share, with Israel replacing Palestinian homes and businesses and vowing to work together.
Someone listening at Feldman’s recent book-signing at Scuppernong Books in Greensboro expressed appreciation for the book’s perspective, but questioned its realism.
“I’m willing to listen to your rosy view,” the man from the audience says, “but I’m not so sure.”
Some in the audience looked around uncertainly while others just seemed to be taking in the words, as Feldman read from his book.
“Bent Toward Justice,” which plays off Martin Luther King’s belief that the moral arc of the universe bends toward justice, tells the story of Murray Schwartzman, a Polish Jew who survived the Holocaust and escaped to America. But he is forced to confront his beliefs about Palestinians being the enemy of the Jewish people.
People are also reading…
“We made a mistake,” a Jewish leader in the book says. ” We should have never expelled Palestinian families from their homes. I’ll beg them for forgiveness and I’ll invite them to come back to their homes.”
Feldman, a dermatologist at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist who was raised Orthodox Jewish in Washington, D.C., paused from the reading to continue in his own voice.
“We’ve seen it happen,” he said, as he reflected on his experience in medical school at Duke University, and classes in the old hospital there. “When you go to the bathroom, there were plenty of bathrooms and water fountains,” Feldman said. “Almost twice as many as you need. Exactly twice as many as you need. Because you had separate ones for whites and separate ones for Blacks. We got over that.”
Feldman said he’s not being simplistic. And he acknowledges change would likely come only after it affects Israel’s economy. Everyone wants peace, Feldman said, and eventually, a peaceful Israel would open up the entire area to a boosted economy, with multiple international airports serving the Holy Land as a major draw.
As a scientist, journal editor, museum curator, and Libertarian candidate in North Carolina’s 10th Congressional District, Feldman calls himself “above all, optimistic about other people.” His book is published by Rand-Smith. The audiobook format features the final performance of the Emmy Award-winning actor Ed Asner, who is best known for The Mary Tyler Moore Show and in Lou Grant.
“Now if you think I’m being naive, I would just say look to Greensboro,” Feldman said. “Look to the city that gives us the Civil Rights museum and what our history is here and how it is dramatically better than it was one generation ago.”
Feldman says that more people, and more Jews, believe that the treatment of Palestinian families in Israel is wrong.
It’s not surprising that Jewish-American college students are leading sit-ins for peace and equality for Palestinian families and that the Jewish Voice for Peace movement is growing.
“It is deeply ingrained in us to speak out against the mistreatment of other people because the lessons of the Holocaust was to stand against all injustice,” Feldman said, referencing the horrific killings of millions of Jews by the Nazis.
Feldman talks about silos that people are born in that contribute to stereotypes, divisions and sometimes even atrocities. As is the case with many others, he said, his whole worldview was formed in silos of people who looked and thought like him. And silos are often confirmed by how people receive their information. Or, what makes the news or word of mouth.
“If a billion Muslims pray for peace on Fridays, does that make the news?” Feldman said. “No. If one does something bad, does that make the news? Yes.”
His understanding of how wrong long-held stereotypes can be developed while visiting family in Israel.
In Israel he was shown thriving businesses and homes where, he was told, there had been empty swamps and deserts.
“It occurred to me that my family had shown me the whole country, but they never showed me where Palestinians had been living,” Feldman said. “If this had been the land of empty swamps and deserts, where had Palestinians been?
“If 700,000 Palestinians had become refugees, there’s something missing from the story I had been taught in Hebrew school.”
A sobering moment, he said, was thinking of how as a child he had collected dimes to help plant trees in Israel.
“I also found that some of those trees I had helped plant were planted on the remains of Palestinian villages,” Feldman said.
Feldman also spoke of visiting places and countries even after being told he was taking his life in his own hands there as a Jew.
In Palestinian homes, he saw pictures of their families on their refrigerators, just like people from other cultures. He used that as a reminder that people who may not look like each other or speak the same language, are often more similar than they realize.
Feldman also says he’s more optimistic since Oct. 7 , referring to the Hamas attack on Israel, setting off a war that has resulted in mass fatalities and injuries in Israel and in Gaza.
“I guess I’m more optimistic now just because I think this is going to be a process, and Oct 7 accelerated the process,” Feldman said. “More people to realize that you ought to be seeking peace and justice not only for Israelis but Israelis and Palestinians and others.”
As a way of bridging the divide for others, Feldman has created The Promised Land, an online museum with historical documents that he says will provide a Jewish perspective on Israel/Palestine that is grounded in the Jewish values of truth, justice and peace. He is hopeful that this perspective will help provide a clear path.
For those who might say he’s betraying Israel, Feldman says it’s just the opposite. Peace, he said, would among others things, prevent Israeli families from having to send their sons and daughters to war.
“You need your friends to tell you when you are doing wrong,” Feldman said.
