Protocols of Zion

Protocols Of Zion is a bit of a fun documentary that sort of dives into the subject of anti-semitism, by covering the strange popularity of The Protocols of Elders Of Zion and how people took what was in that book as complete fact. The filmmaker, Marc Levin, takes us on a trip around North America (but mostly around New York) and talks to a wide range of folk, from Skinheads to Sikh leaders to yes, Rob Reiner, to try to get down to the Zion mystery, on the way he finds out that people make up the weirdest things about the Jews. Did you know they were pre-warned about September 11th? That they run Hollywood? These and other fallacies are explored, but rather lightly I found, nothing really extreme here.

First of all, it's a very interesting theory. Jews being warned about 9/11, a plan for global domination, etc. However, it doesn't stay focused on the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, it becomes a window into anti-Semetic sentiments in the U.S. on a whole. For this reason I think it should have a different title, because it's misleading. A loose theme pervades the film by stretching out the different protocols as the filmmaker encounters different opinions on Jews in general. There are very passionate views expressed throughout, some pro-Jew and some not. What makes it compelling viewing is that so many people want to believe that Jews are responsible for the evil in the world, when in fact they have been on both sides of the equation from the beginning of time. Yes, there are many Jews who have prospered in America and throughout Europe, but at what cost? Why are the perceptions of Jews so extreme? Why do all the Palestinians in the movie come across so angry and full of venom towards Jews? Why do so many Jews hate the government, or current administration, if in fact they are so powerful within it? These are all topics I wanted to see more of. So, to summarize, Protocols isn't a bad film by any means, however I found the title to be misleading.

This was too preachy for me. There were actually several scenes where the filmmaker was on camera preaching to the people he was supposed to be interviewing.

In general, it focused too heavily on pointing out the logical fallacies in "The Protcols of the Elders of Zion." That was unnecessary, in my opinion, because most people watching this movie already understand that "The Protcols" are nonsense.

It would've been more interesting if Levin had included a bit more information about the earlier history of "The Protocols," including their original concoction by the czarists and how they were used before and during the Nazi era, maybe with some documents describing how the Nazis got "The Protocols" into Germans' and other Europeans' hands.

The Protocols was obviously a very personal project for Levin, his chance to get at the eternal question: why always the Jews? It was inspired by a single conversation the filmmaker had with an Arab cabdriver who was convinced that Israel was behind the 9-11 attacks. How did the cab driver know this? Because he had read it in the book "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion."

The century-old book purports to be the minutes of a secret meeting of Jewish leaders in which they lay out their plans for world domination. In fact, it's a fraud; most of the book was plagiarized from earlier works of fiction. Mainstream western society declared it out-of-bounds over 80 years ago. Yet as Levin documents the book remains remarkably popular both on the fringes of American society and throughout the Arab and Muslim worlds.

Levin tries to get to the bottom of this by interviewing neo-Nazis, Palestinians, radical black activists, conspiracy theorists, Christian evangelical leaders and various Jews. The most fascinating and disturbing bits are clips from Arab TV shows which dramatize the Protocols as if they were historical fact.

He never quite gets to the bottom of it -- he's not exactly the most probing of interviewers -- but the results are never less than fascinating. He deserves enormous credit for his bravery in talking to many of these people as well as his willingness to explore the "don't go there" areas of Jewish conspiracy myths. Watch it with some friends then go to a coffee shop and have a good discussion.

I felt like the movie was not so specifically about the Protocols, or about anti-Semitism specifically after 9/11. It was, in my opinion, a brief overview of the history of anti-semitism, and a defense of the 'other side.' He touched upon Arab anti-semitism, the whole white power movement, and African-American anti-semitism (albeit briefly). There were two things that struck me - one was that this man interviewed dozens of people who he knew hated him simply because of who he was - and he kept going back for more. The other was a memory - a year and a half ago I walked through Majdanek and Auschwitz, and was overwhelmed by the feeling of death and the pile of ashes. I am continually amazed by the ease with which seemingly decent people become full of such illogical, passionate hate for something they do not know or understand.