Things
are already worse than when this film was locked. Less than two months ago, the
nation was shocked by a violent attack on a Rabbi and his family in Rockland,
New York. Perhaps even more concerning over the long-term, the presumptive
front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination has recruited two high
profile surrogates with a history of pushing anti-Semitic tropes: Linda Sarsour
and Amer Zahr. They happen to be affiliated with the campaign of Bernie
Sanders, who endorsed and campaigned for UK Labour politician Jeremy Corbyn,
whose own troubling history features prominently in writer-director-on-camera
presenter Andrew Goldberg’s Viral:
Antisemitism in Four Mutations, which opens today in New York.
Goldberg
examines four specific manifestations (or “mutations”) of antisemitism:
far-right domestic terrorists in America, Hungary’s state-sponsored campaign
demonizing George Soros, the Israel-hating far-left in England (personified by
Corbyn), and Islamist terrorism in France. Frankly, he deserves credit for his
non-partisan, equally penetrating treatment of both extreme sides of the
spectrum. Arguably, the initial American section already feels dated due to the
absence of the Rockland attack and the Jersey City shooting, which were rooted
in very different ideologies, but are still probably too recent to put in
sufficient perspective. Regardless, the hate-mongers and mass-murderers Goldberg
covers are indeed alarming, particularly because they represent a wider trend.
Of
the four mutations of antisemitism, Hungarian nationalist Viktor Orban probably
practices the subtlest brand, which is a rather unsettling contention to
suggest. Nonetheless, Goldberg and the Hungarians he interviews convincingly
identify the age-old anti-Semitic imagery and motifs in his campaign against
Soros. Admittedly, Soros is no angel (ask the Bank of England), but it is
terrifying to see a state-funded propaganda campaign targeting a single
individual.
Perhaps
the gutsiest section of the film documents the depth and extent of Labour’s
antisemitism that generated in over 1,000 complaints, according to media
reports. Goldberg could have filled a twelve-hour documentary with Corbyn’s
troubling comments, writings, and associations, but what he includes is more
than enough to raise all kinds of questions regarding the British politician’s
judgement. He also takes on former London mayor “Red” Ken Livingstone, who
resigned from the Labour Party after bizarrely arguing Hitler was a Zionist.
Goldberg
also deserves credit for forthrightly addressing the antisemitism of Islamist
extremists, which might be the deadliest of the four mutations. This section
probably best illustrates how easily the radicalized can be convinced embrace
violence. It is also the hardest, most heart-breaking section to watch, because
of Goldberg’s interviews with the widow of a man murdered during the
Hypercacher kosher market siege and a survivor, who is still clearly plagued by
post-traumatic stress.
Throughout
Viral, Goldberg calls out Islamists,
the alt-right, Orban, Livingstone, Corbyn and his Labour Party, and campus
radicals whose rabid hatred of Israel too often manifests itself as antisemitic
vitriol. (Arguably, Trump is unfairly lumped in with the
“Jews-have-divided-loyalties” fever swamp. He actually argued Jews who do not
vote for him are not sufficiently loyal to Israel, which is sort of the
perverse polar-opposite position, but he has worse press to worry about.)
Regardless, Viral is a level-headed
examination of extremism metastasizing into hatred and violence, on a global
scale. Recommended as an expose and a wake-up call for civil society, Viral opens today (2/21) in New York, at
the Village East.
