A Jewish family, killing Nazis and supporting Palestinians

‍ ‍Graphic: from The Old Red Lion website

Daniel Nelson

Is anti-Zionism antisemitic? If you think so, or perhaps have been accused of being antisemitic for supporting Palestinian protesters. Kaddish is for you.

It’s a one-man show featuring three men: an American Jew who fought in World War 11, his son, and his grandson, Sam Sherman — who wrote the play though he never met his grandfather.

Sam draws on the journals of his grandpa as well as on his own memories to conjure a picture of changing circumstances and perceptions between generations, from pogroms in Russia to casual anti-Jewish insults in the US, from joyously killing Nazis to trying to protect Palestinians from violent, bullying settlers, the army and police, 

Going to the Centre for Jewish Nonviolence in Masafer Yatta runs against his parents’ wishes, but  Sam’s solidarity work is part of a tradition that has seen Jews joining the civil rights struggle in the US and fighting apartheid in South Africa.

There are family stories to savour in the play, an appearance by a mythical Golem, personal confidences, a lesson in Yiddish invective, tales of everyday prejudice, and plenty of humour.

It’s intimate, absorbing and urgently topical.

+ On the night I saw the play, Agnes Kory, who survived Nazi rule as a baby, told the audience that it had taken her years “to give up my Zionism” and that “my anti-Zionism means standing against all the things done in the name of Zionism.”

• kaddish (how to be a sanctuary), £19.50 / £17.50, Old Red Lion, 418 St John Street, EC1V 4NJ, until 23 May. Info: Kaddish