One of the lesser known results of Sept. 11, 2001, was a renewal of anti-Semitic sentiments in United States. Marc Levin's new documentary, "The Protocols of Zion," analyzes this phenomenon and depicts how the 1897 document known as the Protocols of Zion play a major role in extremists' accusations of a supposed Jewish conspiracy to take over the world. Marc Levin, a Jewish filmmaker, sought out many such extremists in hopes of finding out where and why this revamped hatred exists.
Though the entire conspiracy theory is widely considered to be entirely without merit, many anti-Semites today still believe that the Protocols are the outline of a Jewish plan for world domination resulting from a meeting of Jewish leaders at the turn of the 20th century. The Daily sat down with Mr. Levin this week and asked him a few questions concerning the origins of the film.
Question: Was there any specific event that motivated you to make this film, "Protocols of Zion"?
Marc Levin: I had been hearing in the days and weeks right after 9/11 rumors on the streets that rabbis had warned the Jews not to go to work on September 11. Then I was in a cab one day with this young Egyptian [driver]...and I said, "You don't believe this - do you?"
And he said, "Yeah," and added that no Jewish people died. And I got the newspaper right in my hand with the names of missing and dead and said, "Are you out of your mind?" And he said that it was all written one hundred years ago in the Protocols of Zion...
[Later,] he started telling me his life story that he grew up in Alexandria and did love rap music. And every time he bought rap music and the fundamentalists in his neighborhood would see, they'd smash the CD and beat him up. And this happened over and over again until he had to leave his hometown and eventually his home country.
He came to New York hoping to get into the music business, and [as we're] getting into the mix, I'm thinking, "This is so weird. This is a victim of fundamentalism and fanaticism and yet, 20 minutes ago, he was repeating these street rumors and tying them to the oldest of old conspiracy theories, the Protocols." So, that's kind of - in my mind - confusing, because the kid wasn't stupid, and if I had just ended it with me getting out of the cab, it would have just ended in alienation and antagonism.
So I thought, well maybe, if you can withstand the first blow of hate and get a little deeper and listen and talk, other things would be revealed. And that was where I began to think about it, and then, when I went to New Jersey a couple of months later, I saw that the Protocols were being serialized in an Arab-American weekly newspaper not far from where I grew up. [And] I was like, "Wait a second; this is insane."
So that's kind of how it started. So I kind of decided that light is the great disinfectant; let's open it up and talk about it.
Q: In the movie, you interview a lot of closed-minded people, such as the creator of the Internet site Jew Watch and some high-ranking neo-Nazis. What is going through your mind as you are talking to these people, and how do you personally feel about them?
ML: First of all, I tried almost as a mantra to keep close to my original story: that moment with the cab driver. I said to myself, "Withstand, try to keep your cool, because maybe you'll get deeper." Certainly there were moments as you saw on film where I couldn't contain myself.
For example, with [neo-Nazi] Sean Walker, he felt that the word "Jew" itself was open for definition. In other words, for him, any media mogul such as Rupert Murdoch (for example) was a Jew - didn't matter where [he] went to church.
The radio show I would say was the most scary - not physically, [though]. I knew what Jew Watch was, and so I figured that some of these supporters will definitely call. And to hear caller after caller say, "The Jews did this, the Jews did that...," that really surprised me and caught me off guard, and I was shaken by that.
Q: If there is one message you want the audience to leave the movie ["Protocols of Zion"] with, what would that be?
ML: I would say [the message is] when you read what my grandfather has written on his grave: "God means go do good." It's a platitude, obviously, in a way, but at the same time, what it really means to me and what I want people to take from this is to find your own way to have this conversation, this dialogue; get involved, get engaged.
This isn't somebody else's problem; this isn't just the Jews' problem, and everyone has got to find their way. If somebody [a suicide bomber] is going into the subway or into theater strapped down, they're not going to ask who is a Jew and who is not. They're not taking a census. Everyone is a potential victim; everyone must find a way - whether it is an organizational way, whether it is a campus way - which inspires dialogue.
The reason I made this movie in a 'street-gonzo' way is to make it accessible, so [that] not just experts on this are subject to the debate within the film. You have to find a way to become part of this conversation.
