KQED: Common Ground : Reflections of Rabbit in the Moon

JILL TREGOR
Executive Director of Intergroup Clearinghouse, a non-profit organization that contends with hate motivated violence.

The first feeling I had when watching Rabbit in the Moon was I started feeling really anxious. Oh no, this is this topic I don't like to think about and it's making me have to think about what happened to Jewish people during the Holocaust and I don't want to have to think about that.

I really felt all my defenses going up immediately. And there's a scene in the film where she starts talking about, calling it a concentration camp and I could feel inside a really almost physical reaction that was both excited for her to say that and really a little bit defensive about her saying that, like wait, you can't really say that. You're not supposed to say that.

At the same time, I was watching I started thinking, God, I wish every Jewish person I know could see this cause I hate the ways that within my own community we start acting like we're the only ones that have ever been oppressed. We have some corner on horrible experiences. And here, it was so clear watching this film how devastating the experiences were. So it wasn't that it was the same, but it was devastating period. No need for comparison.