Open letter to the Jewish community

I want to preface this by saying that I do not support anti-semitism nor should what I say here be used to fuel anti-semitism. These are my own thoughts and my own experiences. I am publishing this only because of the profound violation of my human rights. They have chosen to set me up as an example of what they do to ‘disobedient’ women. To instil fear and discourage free thinking. It is not an accident that people who question religion are targeted. I am not alone in this.
In general, for over 10 years my life has been at the mercy of people who want to change and control me. I am constantly surrounded by those who pressure me to earn a living as they dictate, befriend people they dictate, marry the ‘right’ religion, think along the same lines as they do and follow the ideology they believe. Who insist I will only be happy if I do as they tell me to do. I have lived way below the poverty level for over 10 years because of this. I am always falling into their hands because I do not have the resources to live on my own, not to mention how easy it is to interfere in someone’s life now with the internet. Everything they do is geared to degrade, create insecurity, to separate me from my sense of myself, separate me from my work and my own thoughts, to interfere with the very process of self-definition. As an artist, my work is not something I do, it is something I am. To sever this connection with myself and demand a servitude to an ideology is a form of enslavement. Constantly twisting, constantly making decisions for me, constantly creating a false image of me in other people’s minds, as well as trying to impose this false image in my own eyes. Rape, dousing with drugs when I disobey them, dousing with drugs every time I try to do something constructive for my life. Interfering whenever I do anything constructive for my life. This is the legal definition for harassment, and I consider it to be exactly that.
I recently came to Paris to continue artistic projects I had begun when I lived here about 10 years ago. I had had a casual contact with a Jewish group called Chabad in Los Angeles when I lived there in 2011-12 because they have an open door policy and were willing to help when I occassionally had problems with money. In fact, they offer to help with everything, and being essentially alone in the world I thought that was nice. I was referred by Rabbi Chaim Yitzchak Cohen of London Chabad-Beis Menachem to a rabbi in Neuilly sur Seine, Rabbi David Zaoui, so that he might suggest ways to get settled here, which can be difficult for a foreigner. He referred me to a woman named Mme Gabrielle Klein, also of Neuilly sur Seine, whose family is all involved successfully in the arts and fashion. I thought she would be an excellent aquaintance for this reason as I am an actress, artist and singer/songwriter. Instead, all her actions served to cut me off from my secular life and were contrived to pull me into the Chabad community. She constantly harassed me about my level of religious commitment, about changing my name from Dvorah Silverstein to Zoe Rosenblum; she found a man within the community she insisted I live with, even offering to pay my rent. I was told I told be willing to sleep with any Jewish man – that they all had a tribal right to the means to my birth canal, that it was a service I should provide. She threatened that the police were looking for me, called me as often as 20 times a day, insisted I tell her where I was and what I was doing every minute of the day, treated me with absolute contempt and bullied constantly. She knew I was looking for a job doing music and English with children and during one job interview with a group I had contacted over a year ago, she called 5 times and insisted I stop the interview because she had other plans for me. This person never called me again, nor have any of the other potential employers I had spoken with previously. She insisted on writing me a certificate of lodging at her home though I at no point ever lived there. Being new to Paris I really didn’t know the rules or the consequences of this. I refused her match-making and found a place to live on my own, but the new people, Eduoard and Anita Langouste of Choisy le Roi refused to give me a certificate of lodging, so I ended up using the one from Mrs Klein. This then affected my visa - which I was unable to get as long as I was within her prefecture - and my bank account. Mrs Klein claimed she was having me followed and found out where I lived. She claimed my phone calls were being tracked. Finally, when I stopped returning Mme Klein's calls and tried to end the involvement she filed a police report because of the false certificate of lodging. I filed a counter complaint and the police did nothing on either side, but the fact remains that her intention was to get me into trouble with the authorities. She spoke with my bank and told them about the certificate of lodging, although by that time I had a legitimate one, and the bank then refused to speak to me and sent my dossier to the Bank of France. They even threatened to call the police when I went in to the branch to talk to my account manager. According to French law an account holder is given 60 days to resolve a negative bank balance, which I had at that point, but in my case they closed my account after about 2 weeks. Chabad is a cult. Their goal is to force all people with any Jewish blood to live according to Orthodox Jewish law. They break up inter-faith relationships and are trying to create a separatist lifestyle based on that of the shtetls of Eastern Europe. Women in this culture are considered and treated as little better than cows or servants; it is extremely misogynistic. It is considered harmful to let women be educated or let them think at all. Their only value is in caring for the home and producing and raising more Jewish babies. Preferably male babies. They also believe that gentiles should live according to the rules the Jews establish for them. These are clear violations of human rights and they are, for this reason, dangerous. In fact, they are acting no differently than the Nazis. While I don't think anyone would want to blow the whistle on a Jewish group, and certainly the treatment of the Jews historically has been horrendously unfair, but I do think that theirs is an oppressive and militant cult and at the very least their outreach activities should be halted. If they want to live in a shtetl they should be allowed to, but I don’t and most Jewish people are also glad that that phase of the history is over.
I have had many problems which are essentially violations of my human rights. The right to choose a profession, to benefit from my work, to live without constant pressure to align myself with a political, artistic or religious group. I am an artist, musician, writer and actress with a BFA and MFA from top universities in the States as well as a degree in music and another in acting. I have earned a living in all these capacities. Nevertheless, these people insist that I will never again be permitted to earn my living according to my training; indeed, in any creative or professional field. I am reminded of the Bolshevik revolution during which all 'intellectuals' were sent to work camps. Are we back to that oppressive period of history? Jewish Marxism? In the past they have insisted that either I go back to painting or die, which has come close to happening 4 or 5 times. Now I should be a salesperson or do telephone surveys or clean houses or be a prostitute. What, do I think I’m better than everyone else? For people like me, creative passionate people, their decision is a death sentence; I simply cannot earn a living without utilizing the skills I am endowed with and have honed through training and experience. Creativity has its own set of internal principles and necessitates its own fulfillment. It also comes with a psychological structure that is destructive when not channeled constructively. A society that does not allow the arts to flourish is not a free society. Art, religion and politics do not mix. While politics and religion are systems of social control, the arts are an inquiry into a more profound understanding of existence and experience.
I am told that no one will ever buy my work again, that I should just ‘get a job’. That unless I’m suffering what I do for a living isn’t ’work’. That work is something you have to hate. That I should live in ‘harsh reality’. I wouldn’t pay attention, except every step of the way their will is enforced. How easy it is to get people to hate someone! All you have to do is say, oh, she grew up with money, she doesn’t know what it’s like to suffer. Right. Because people with money don’t experience any other kind of human pain. And in any case, why is anyone judging someone's worth or validity by how much they have suffered? The idea of redemption or purification through suffering is another of the bizarre concepts introduced by Jewish thinkers. It is, in reality, a perversion and shows a deep lack of respect for the precious gift of life. Rather than improving people it renders them ineffectual and definitely prone to bad humor, violence, corruption and acts of criminality. It does not instill humility. I still believe that each human being has a seed of something unique and precious inside them and it is their responsibility to develop it and make a contribution to the world. I believe in equality and respect for the dignity of all human beings. I do not believe that sameness is a manifestation of equality; rather, it is a force of oppression. I think the goal of ‘oneness’ is a terribly misguided theory – it can only lead to the destruction and enslavement of all of humanity. I do not believe that people should be permitted to limit another persons’ potential because they are jealous: resentment, hate, envy are not fair or just mechanisms for interpersonal control. If society were to eliminate all original thinkers, talented artists, or people who stand out from the crowd because someone is jealous of them society will collapse. It is these people who contribute things that everyone benefits from. They should be nurtured and respected rather than attacked. I've thought a great deal about the problems of society and finally I realize the underlying problem is cynicism, fatalism, mockery, nihilism, apathy – common within Jewish philosophy; it is ignorance, brutality. It is the lack of respect for life and other people; it is the lack of self-respect. I have come to think that the vengeful terrifying god that forms the basis of the entire Judeo-Christian tradition and society is modeled on the Egyptian slave-drivers; a punisher who demands obedience and fear at risk of death. Other gods from other cultures at this time were considered helpers of humanity; they brought knowledge that enabled the human race to make great advances technologically. The Jewish tribe were given the 10 commandments. The perception was that needed to learn the most basic rules of human decency. I have come to think that the real test for Abraham was in having enough self-respect and love for his child that he would never have agreed to make such a barbaric sacrifice. And this sacrifice was made in trade for the promise of a kingdom. Haven’t we all heard the old adage ‘selling your soul to the devil’ ? This sounds pretty much the same to me. This willingness revealed an innate moral corruptibility and the capacity for enslavement.
My family continues to be a problem. My sister and brother are 2 of 3 remaining relatives, and they took the occasion of the death of my mother and the distribution of the estate to express their feelings of inadequacy; insisting that because I got the talent, they should have the money. My sister got a new will signed 3 days before my mother died while she was heavily medicated and barely conscious, which put her (my sister) in position of second in charge of an executor she chose. Not only did she rob the estate but also tried to claim my paintings as part of it. I had to hire lawyers to protect myself. The rest of whatever money I did get from the sale of one of our houses I ended up spending on doctors because the stress triggered the final phase of a long-standing undiagnosed health problem, Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis. I was sick for about 2 years because of it. I took the executor of the estate to court myself, but the damning letters my brother and sister wrote as well as my lack of ability to remain calm and lack of understanding of protocol turned the court against me. There was a huge theft of the paintings shortly after the final decision of the court. I have never been able to get any of this investigated or to recover the paintings or the money my sister stole. Both siblings refuse to help me in times of need despite the fact that the need was caused by their dishonesty. I continue to get letters from a ‘friend’ who insists my only choice in life is to go back to Los Angeles and beg my sister to take me in. This abusive corrupt sister. They are hoping she will finish the job. Someone wants those paintings and prefers to ruin my life so they don't have to pay for them. I’m guessing it is, but not only, my sister; she has never been able to earn as much money a she needs, she has never become the ‘star’ of the family she imagined was her birthright. When my mother was dying she insisted she ‘get off the pot’ and said she would contaminate the medication so she couldn’t get better – Mary would kill for money. She has the ability to corrupt other people as well. I had hoped changing my name would release me from her radar but this has not happened. My brother is, unfortunately, mentally ill and sadistic by nature. He, too, would only like to see the worst for me.
I should also mention that every person involved in initiating these problems is Jewish. My family: Mary Copeland, David Silverstein, Stanley and Bryna Moskowitz; Steve Schwartz, a fellow artist who thought drugging me (as well as other things) was a way to get rid of the competition my work posed ; the estate lawyer Roy Weiss, my lawyer Cyrus Adler, members of the Jewish community in Paris, Edinburgh, Freiburg and Los Angeles, my ‘friends’, John Motulsky et al; the list is endless and most recently Chabad is on it. Every time I need ‘help’ someone uses it as an opportunity to steal from me and oppress me. And as long as I can’t earn a living from my work I will always need help. Honestly, after all the drugs and stress I can’t do anything practical any more; I can still do my performing work because it is an innate process, but I can’t do anything else well enough to be paid for it. I also can’t remember how to paint or duplicate what I was thinking at the time. And they want me in this position; they could easily buy the artwork or employ me in any number of dignified ways but that would enable me to have a career, some self-respect and independence. They don’t want that. This way they control me. They have decided to use me as an example of how powerful they are against those who question them. Because a petite middle age woman who wants to be an actress is such a threat to society.
I am half-Jewish ; my mother and her family was Greek Orthodox. Because the Jewish part of my family had mostly died by the time I was 9 years old my environment was primarily non-Jewish. We celebrated the high holy days out of respect for my father, but the ceremonies were performed by Greeks in yarmulkes. I never felt a real attachment to the community because of this. Nevertheless, I used to be proud of my Jewish heritage; for me it was about being a member of an artistic and intellectual elite – like my father and his family. All the brilliant Jews who have made incomparable contributions to the arts and sciences, whose generosity has supported research and hospitals and tried to help others. I studied Kaballah to try to understand it better. It was there that I first experienced how much about superstition it was, about its insistence on blind faith and obedience. By contrast, my father was a man who loved his family before he was a Jewish man – he wanted our happiness more than our obedience to a philosophy. I remember asking my teacher at the Kaballah Center a question and his response being ‘You don’t exist. You are just a test of my faith’. I lost interest after that. Now I reject it as a ‘misery loves company’ social structure and an oppressive and corrupt morality. It is sadistic and cruel. It is based on the self-oppressive thinking that characterizes poverty. They want to make sure that no one escapes. They want to make sure that everyone with a Jewish heritage is suffering. Like they did. Every head of the Jewish community in France has been removed for corruption, as was the rabbi in Freiburg. You know, if there is anything to the idea of Judaism it lies in the demand for a higher moral ground; yet the pressure on me has been the opposite. A ‘how low can you go’ mentality. Lowness is not an expression of humility any more than aspiration means ‘trying to be like god’. Ghetto thinking. Poverty thinking. Self-oppression. This ‘willingness’ and lack of self-respect is the path by which evil enters the world. Through the pain of separation, personal and professional – separation, the first demand made on Abraham, allowed evil into the world. One should not need to fear god if ‘he’ is indeed good; one does, however, fear evil. Shame on all of you.
I suggest that the Jewish community should reimburse me 20 million euros – 2 million per year that they have interfered in my life to my detriment and their advantage. For every job they interfered with, for every relationship they interfered with; for every decision they made for me. For making it impossible for me to function. I think this would be fair. Jewish law expressly states that Jews are not allowed to interfere in someone else's life to their detriment: they are not permitted to cause someone shame, humiliation, physical harm; they are not permitted to steal, lie or murder. If they do, they are required to pay restitution in kind. I have received verbal and written apologies from several people involved but apologies are not enough to balance the interference with earning a living. Without their greed and arrogance I would have been able to buy my own house by now – two of them; I might have married, I would be successful. They have an obligation to make that up to me in the way they hurt me: financially.