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Zionism, Under a Red Cloak
Advocating for Israel in the East
by Yoni Freeman, Connecticut College
Vietnamese proverb: Never forget benefits done you, regardless how small.
When I signed up and was admitted to the study-abroad program Connecticut College was offering in Hanoi, Vietnam, I thought for the next semester I would be sadly taking a break from pro-Israel activism. After all, I was going to a communist country. Thankfully, my assumption was wrong.
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Their Communist Party-run media was completely biased against Israel, and news reports almost always showed Israel in a bad light.
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A professor from my college led a group of thirteen students for the semester in Vietnam. We were to study history, government, and, of course, Vietnamese. In addition, we would travel around the country. I decided to extend my stay for another two-and-a-half months after the culmination of the program and interned at the Museum of Ethnology. My real Israel activism began when I was alone, without the group and the professor, who had all returned to the United States.
Yoni Freeman with Vietnamese friends Quyen and Quyin, at the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology in Hanoi, where he interned after completing a semester abroad.
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The first opportunity I had to educate about Israel took place in May, close to Israel’s Independence Day. I made friends with many of the Cambodian students who were living in a large dorm next door. One night, I went over to their Cambodian New Year’s party, which was complete with Cambodian music and Cambodian flags. Their party gave me an idea, and after discussing it with a very supportive Cambodian friend, we threw our own Israel party, with drinks, food, and Israeli music.
The Israeli music was a hit, especially Israeli hip-hop, which they loved, and which I let them borrow. They then wanted me to give them some information about Israel, so I did, and had my English translated into Khmer. I mainly spoke about basic Israeli history and the meaning behind the stories and images portrayed on the news. The Cambodian students were eager to learn about Israel, especially about Israeli nationalism. They asked me questions about Israeli society and history, Islamic terrorism, and the Holocaust. After the talk, many of them expressed anger at those who were murdering Israelis and vowed to defend Israel in the war of words if the opportunity arose.
When it came time to pass out pro-Israeli materials, I was at a loss because I did not have any. Before the party, I had found a store that sold flags, and I purchased a couple Israeli ones. I also found several websites I could show the students with maps of Israel in the world and from space and sites with Biblical passages from the Torah, which I used to show my new friends what Hebrew looks like. I found a bootleg Israeli movie, “Broken Wings,” at one of the DVD stores, and I used that film to show some scenes of Israel.
With Vietnamese friends, however, it was a little different. For one thing, their Communist Party-run media was completely biased against Israel, and news reports almost always showed Israel in a bad light. At one of the museums I visited there was a plaque describing Vietnam’s diplomatic relations, and I learned that “Palestine” had diplomatic relations established years before relations with Israel were established. (“Palestine” is considered a country and even has an embassy in Hanoi.) Additionally, when Arafat died, a book was published in Vietnamese about his life. The book was titled—Arafat: A Man of Freedom. Arafat even visited Vietnam during his lifetime.
Yoni Freeman, President of the ZOA chapter at Connecticut College, educates his peers about Israel.
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All Vietnamese get their information from the same textbooks. The books do not have much current information about the Israeli-Arab conflict. However, they do discuss World War II. Each time I met someone I heard the same comments made about Jews: Jews are very intelligent, and that is the reason that Hitler killed them.
I played them a lot of Israeli folk music and, in some instances, sang them songs. In Vietnam, singing is very popular, and when you are with friends you are sometimes expected to sing something. Playing Israeli songs and singing in Hebrew proved the most effective form of activism. I showed them pictures of Israel and explained the meaning behind the words of “Hatikva.” I corrected the information they had about Arafat, what it meant to be Jewish, and what Torah was, and occasionally compared the cultural similarities in Vietnam and Israel. Several of the students thought that Jewish women in Israel wore burkas covering their entire bodies. After I improved speaking the local language, I offered some information about Israel in Vietnamese rather than English.
The first main point I underlined was the Vietnamese connection to Israel. In the early 1980s, Menachem Begin, the Israeli Prime Minister, allowed about 300 Vietnamese refugees fleeing war in Vietnam into Israel. The individuals were saved after Israeli ships on three occasions met Vietnamese boats and then were instructed to offer help. I told them that today there is a community of Vietnamese people in Israel who are full citizens and who even have members serving in the army. I remembered an interview a website had with a Vietnamese woman in Israel who now has an Israeli boyfriend, is an officer in the IDF, and is fluent in Hebrew.
I decided to check whether the Israeli Embassy had any material in Vietnamese. Though the Embassy was not able to provide many materials in Vietnamese, their website had information translated into Vietnamese. I found the site very useful, and I sent the link to many of my friends. To celebrate Israeli Independence Day, the Embassy even sponsored the performance of a klezmer artist from Israel. I took a Vietnamese friend along to the concert.
Yoni Freeman introduces Zionism to his Vietnamese friends.
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Some of my accomplishments included teaching my Vietnamese friends about “kosher,” convincing karaoke places to play Israeli music, showing friends how their names looked when written in Hebrew, and even teaching a Vietnamese person to sing “Hatikva.”
Granted, I didn’t turn anyone into an avid Zionist, but I think many of those whom I met and informally told about Israel now know much more about the Jewish State, its place in the world, and its culture and people. I have no doubt that the next time they watch the news and a report about Israel airs, they will have a different perspective. The same is true regarding the next time they hear their fellow citizen say something about Israel, Arafat, or “Palestine.”
Before I left Hanoi after my seven-month journey, I received gifts from several friends. One Vietnamese friend’s gift had a long note attached: “Before I met you, I hated Israel because they made war with the Palestinians. But after meeting you, I have found Israel to be very kind.”
Yoni Freeman is in his senior year at Connecticut College and is a International Relations major.
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