LOS JUSTOS: Carol Mutterperl

Un hombre que cultiva un jardín, como quería Voltaire A man who cultivates a garden, as Voltaire wanted

El que agradece que en la tierra haya música The one who is thankful that music exists

El que descubre con placer una etimología The one who discovers, with pleasure, an etymology

Dos empleados que en un café del Sur juegan un silencioso ajedrez Two employees who silently play chess in a Southern café

El ceramista que premedita un color y una forma The ceramist who ponders a color and a form

Un tipógrafo que compone bien esta página, que tal vez no le agrada A typographer who composes this page, which he may not like

Una mujer y un hombre que leen los tercetos finales de cierto canto A man and a woman who read the final triplets of a certain poem

El que acaricia a un animal dormido The one who caresses a sleeping animal

El que justifica o quiere justificar un mal que le han hecho The one who justifies, or wants to justify, the bad deeds done to him

El que agradece que en la tierra haya Stevenson. The one who is thankful that Stevenson exists

El que prefiere que los otros tengan razón The one who prefers for others to be right

Esas personas, que se ignoran, están salvando el mundo Those people, who go unnoticed, are saving the world

JORGE LUIS BORGES

Q: Where were you born and raised?

A: I am the first person in my family to be born in the United States, specifically in Queens, New York. I grew up in the same house which my parents bought a year or two before I was born. I lived there until the day I was married.

Q: How did your family shape who you are today? Who or what was specially important?

A: My parents brought me up with the European values that shaped them. While both my mother and father addressed my behavior and their expectations for me under specific circumstances, I must say that my core values are derived from the experiences  of my father. In 1935 my father was kidnapped, beaten and left for dead by Gestapo Storm Troopers. This set in place an odyssey which had him quit Germany for Austria, then leave Austria for Belgium, only to be deported back to Germany and put into a concentration camp. These stories, which were revealed in a fractious way, were profound shapers of my experience in several ways.  Firstly, I didn't speak "American" like the other kids in my peer group. Then, my sensibilities were somewhat different; not entirely different, but different nonetheless. Later in college,  during the 1960's, when all kinds of student demonstrations were taking place against the USA. I could not bring myself to join student protests against my country, even though I had sympathies for some of the issues under fire.  I simply would never ever protest against the country which offered my parents refuge and saved them from the Nazis. But most important regarding my values, I listened and learned from my father and how he conducted himself under dire circumstances. He lived by his wits, and while many of the things that happened to him were beyond his control, he exerted a strong will that revealed a sense of respect for the lives of others. To put it succinctly, he never sacrificed someone else's life or liberty for his.

Q: If you could choose a moment that changed your life what would that be? Why?

A: When I was 8 years old I was visiting my cousins and sliding on a frozen lake when I fell through a patch of thin ice. I was lucky that the ice water was not over my head, but it was as high as the top of my shoulders. There was no way I was able to get out. Every time I tried to climb out onto more solid ice, the hole I was standing in only got bigger. My cousins and friends did not know what to do. They tried extending their hands to me, I only pulled them closer to the edge of danger, but it gave me an idea. One boy had a  sled with a rope attached. I asked him to set the sled down with its rear near me so I could hold onto it and he could pull at a safe distance from the ice hole. It worked and I was able to pull free of the icy cold water. What I learned was that I needed to rely on my own wits to save myself. I also realized that I possessed an inner-calm that allowed me to deal with this threatening situation without panic. This experience also fortified the strong identification I had already formed with my father as one who could deal with difficult, life-threatening situations without panic.

Q: Is the work you do what you always wanted to do? If so, why? If not, what would you have liked to do instead? Why?

A: I enjoy my work as a clinical psychologist. It is intellectually stimulating and rewarding to be the facilitator of people's search for self-truth, develping their narrative and their ability to develop alternate ways of processing meaning and reacting to situations.

Q: How different is society today, from the one you lived your childhood in?

A: It is truly difficult to compare a society in this way. As a child  one is subject to more externally based regulations imparted by people who have power over you.  So, if I try to compare the society that I presently live in with that of it in the past, it, by definition is different, because I am now an adult, and less subject to other people's restrictions. In general I find that the mores of society today are, at least in large metropolitan areas, more complex and  inclusive of the rights of others than they were in the past. There is more sensitivity to the experiences, sentiments and sensitivities of others.

Q: What is the American dream?

A: To me, the American dream is to live in a free and just society.

Q: Is there anti-Semitism in America today?

A: I think there is anti Semitism in America today but is is not state-sanctioned. In some cases it is deeply ingrained from generation to generation, sometimes without them realizing it. In other cases it is more overt and results from  membership in a group that is anti Semetic. In still other cases it is a result of anti-Israel feelings.

Q: Any thoughts on the Israel-Palestine conflict?

A: This is such a complex issue! In order to understand contemporary events in Israel, one must know the history of the struggle. In order to find a safe haven from persecution Jews from Eastern Europe began to arrive in Palestine in the late 1800s and early 1900s. They began to buy the land from absentee landowners with moneys from the Jewish National Fund. Much of the land was arid or swampland. They planted Eucalyptus trees to drain the swamps and developed a system to deliver water to arid land and made the desert a place that could support agriculture. Their move to Palestine was at first mandated by the Balfour Declaration which envisaged a Jewish homeland. This was later ignored by the British who feared Arab unrest. Arabs were of various opinions about the Jewish influx into the land. They sometimes sold their lands to the Jews; they sometimes rioted and attacked the Jewish population; and in some cases, they lived peacefully as neighbors. It is the rioting and massacres that began the Jewish need to feel safe and secure within their territory. After World War II, when millions of Jews were murdered (6 million, if you can conceive that number of people which included women and children), the need for a Jewish homeland became even more urgent. The British blockaded the ports of Palestine to keep out the influx of Jews, but there were  organizations which smuggled in people nonetheless. The UN tired to resolve the matter by partitioning the land into 2 cohesive states: Palestine (the Jewish state). and Trans-Jordan, for the Arabs. The UN voted for partition in May, 1948.  Ben-Gurion renamed the Jewish state, Israel. At that moment 5 Arab states declared war on Israel. They were Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Egypt. Somehow Israel managed not to be completely annihilated. The borders were formed. Now there was a great emigration of Palestinian Arabs who poured into neighboring Arab countries. They were not absorbed by these countries but were herded into squalid refugee camps. This was used for political advantage  to keep Palestinians disenfranchised. There were subsequent wars in 1954, with Israel fighting Egypt along side of England and France after Egypt refused use of the Suez Canal. From 1954 to 1967 there existed a War of Attrition where mortars and artillery were fired from Jerusalem (in Jordanian hands), the Golan Heights (in Syrian hands) and onto northern Israel (from Lebanon). Then in 1967 Israel saw that Egypt and Syria  were mobilizing for an attack. Israel warned Jordan not to join them. Jordan, however, continued to mobilize, fire on Israeli civilians and advance its troops. Israel was attacked on 4 fronts. It somehow prevailed but not without a large loss of life. It On the Jordanian front, Israel took Jerusalem and the West Bank. On the Syrian front, Israel took the Golan Heights. Now thus far my views are that Israel acted defensively and took territory as a result of war. What happened since 1967 is complicated. Israel initially wanted to use the territories as bargaining chips in exchange for peace. However, it wanted to hold on to some of its newly ceded territories. It occupied the Golan Heights because it overlooked Israeli territory and the Syrians had used the Heights to fire down upon Israeli settlements. It held onto the West Bank for similar strategic reasons and for religious reasons as well. Hard Righters called these lands ancient Judea and Sammaria, heritage of the ancient kingdoms. This gave birth to the Settler Movement, which encouraged ultra Orthodox Jewish settlers to set up communities in these territories and further fan the flame of resentment among the Arabs. It should be noted that this resentment of a Jewish influx was there for many years, even before the birth of Israel. There was rioting and massacres by Arabs against Jews in Hebron and Jaffa as early as 1929 and 1936. The Ultra Orthodox themselves were not helpful in accommodating to the surrounding Arab community. They are insular and live by an uncompromising religious fervor. Tensions were mostly high between the Ultra Orthodox settlers and the indigenous Arab community, marked by dastardly acts of violence perpetrated by both sides. What was very disturbing was that Israel, in order to secure its territory and populace, started on the road of becoming occupiers. Bitterness increased and so did acts of violence. Buses carrying ordinary people home or to work were the targets of bombs. Restaurants and  hotels filled with civilians were also bombed. Gradually, Israeli leadership began to change its ideas. It decided on a land for peace initiative and forced Jewish settlers to abandon Gaza. But this did not buy peace. Instead, Gaza now was subject to a civil outbreak of "war" between Hamas and The Palestinian Authority. Hamas was the victor in this internecine dispute, and began to launch rocket attacks against Israeli towns across the frontier. It also kidnapped a young Israeli soldier, from Israeli territory, who is still in captivity. War ensued with  very high civilian Palestinian casualties, partly exacerbated by the intermingling of Palestinian fighters amongst the civilian population. Also fueling the seeds of discontent is the erection of the security wall by the Israelis in the West Bank. This is to deter suicide bombers, which have dramatically stopped. But the geographic lines through villages seem to be a real obstacle to perhaps a more amicable and bilateral solution. I feel that a two state solution is the only answer to this ongoing state of warfare and attacks. It is far from realized. 

Q: What does the Holocaust say about human rationality?

A: It seems that human rationality is often secondary to nationalism and racial/religious credos and economic opportunism.

Q: How would you like to be remembered?

A: As someone who loved and was loved; was helpful and cared about the rights of others; had a pragmatic and practical way of looking at things, and enjoyed the fruits of life.