Episode 32 - Forever Pure: Between Sports and Racism in Jerusalem's Soccer Team with Maya Zinshtein

Two Nice Jewish Boys

Eytan and Naor

Society & Culture

1.7 • 804 Ratings

🗓️ 5 April 2017

⏱️ 61 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The year is 2012 and Beitar Jerusalem, the favored soccer team of Israel's right wing, is on its way to its first national title in years. Quickly climbing the rankings from week to week, the team can almost taste the sweet flavor of victory and national pride. However, Beitar’s owner, Arkady Gaydamak, has other plans for the team - plans that will shock the players, the fans, the entire Israeli soccer community and the nation as a whole. Stretched to its limits along racial lines, the story of Beitar Jerusalem is a sort of microcosm of Israeli society. The team prides itself on its racially pure past and present roster and its right-wing Zionist political alignment. Maya Zinshtein, director of the film “Forever Pure” which follows the team through its most dramatic crisis, joins 2NJB to talk Israeli soccer, politics and filmmaking. Plus great music by Quarter to Africa!

Transcript

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0:00.0	Live from Tel Aviv, two nice Jewish boys, Aitin Weinstein, and Nuh or Minigur.
0:11.8	So today we're going to talk a little bit about sports, not a topic that I'm very comfortable with, but we'll do so nonetheless.
0:19.7	And not just about sports. Sports have always been
0:22.2	tightly wound up in politics. They serve as a sort of platform to showcase and promote
0:27.8	political ideas, as Hitler infamously did with Aryan nationalism in the 1936 Olympics, as I'm getting
0:35.9	faces here, as Tommy Smith and John Carlos did in 1968 when they
0:41.6	performed the Black Power Salute during the medal ceremony.
0:45.4	And as countless teams and athletes do by wearing ribbons and other paraphernalia during games,
0:51.6	there was even a little-known football war between El Salvador and Honduras in
0:57.8	1970. That actually broke out because of economic issues, but it's called the football war
1:03.0	because it happened surrounding these riots around the FIFA World Cup, which I thought was
1:09.9	fascinating.
1:16.6	This is very evident here in the heart of the Middle East, where it's so conflict-ridden.
1:21.7	Yeah, and Beitard Jerusalem is the premier soccer team of Jerusalem,
1:26.6	and they are one of the most political and probably the most controversial teams in Israel. In recent years, a group of
1:28.3	radical nationalist fans that go by the name of La Familia have become more and more dominant
1:34.2	in the fan base of Beatar. offices were burned and games were destroyed and boycotted over
1:40.3	controversy. However, La Familia has also become an act, has also become active outside of the
1:46.6	stadium and outside of soccer in general. They have become a real political force and some would
1:52.6	say a threat to Israeli society. So, Forever Pure is a new film that documents this team through one of its thickest controversies.
2:04.4	Maya Zinstein, the director of this film, is here with us today to talk about it.
2:08.0	Before we start, I'll just say we have two amazing corporations, one with the Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles.
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