Why I’m not bribing Woody Allen to shoot a movie in Israel

About #2, let's remember that not every single human being goes to Israel. The idea of pilgrimage among Jews started, I read, one thousand years ago, imported from Muslim culture, but it was not fully incorporated in our culture. My father never thought of going to Israel, my mother went once and it was enough for her. My grandmother went to Europe whenever she could, but never to Israel. I know that Israelis think that they are the center of the world, and maybe they are right, but not everybody agrees with that... About the film, it might be advantageous - or not - for the country and the filmaker, but it's not an ethical issue...

Great article. BTW, I just saw Woodys latest film. I loved it. It was brilliant. Am curious what caused his self-hating attitude about his Jewish identity. Is he feeling as guilt ridden as the character he always plays?

He is no credit to the Jewish people, and the reason he has unattractive woman in his movies, is because he is so very unattractive, and i cant see why any woman would want to go to bed with him. that is to say even twenty years ago

Allison, you are 100% right in everything you said here. Thanks for saying it.

... there's no justification for bribing him to do so. He's welcome to take advantage of the same incentives others get to encourage filming. But beyond that, he deserves nothing just because of who he is.

but in the end he should be acknowledged as a Master film -maker. Hannah and her Sisters, Manhattan etc are up there with Bergman, Polanski, Bunuel, Von Trei and Tarkovsky. BTW Nothing but fondness has ever been present in his depiction of the neurotic, American Jew. It's a European thing, sadly missed now in Israel.

Right on! I was actually embarassed watching Noa Tishbi making her pitch to Allen. Allen's image of what it means to be Jewish is so narrow and negative, and so far from the Israeli reality of what it is to be Israeli, with all its richness and complexity, that he probably would not be able to see Israel as it is in any case. Israel does not need Woody Allen, and Israel might not be good for Allen, who does not seem to want to open himself up and look at things that don't fit in with his specific, American Jewish self-mocking way of expressing his Jewishness. We don't need him, and he doesn't need us, and it's all OK.

Tell Woody to get lost.

I recollect Allen implying that as he is not religious, he is not a Jew and I haven't forgotten the documentary of his clarinet jazz jaunt through Europe which ended with him making a foiol of his parents on screen for implying that being Jewish was important for them. I agree with every word you have written and unfortunately some people in the States do not that there is a limit to how to promote Israel