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(1) Introduction: The background, nature, and objective of my work regarding Israel and Jews
(2) Work samples
(1) Introduction: The background, nature, and objective of my work regarding Israel and Jews
Until 2008, I was ignorant of the extent to which hugely influential people and organizations are able to spread incendiary lies about Jews and Israel.
My ignorance was shattered by my discovery of the how the fastest growing “news” website at the time, The Huffington Post, chronically turned reality on its head in order to incite hatred of Israel and Jews — and yet, (a) was supported by mainstream advertisers, and (b) became the first website to be granted White House press credentials.
What disturbed me even more, in the following years, was my discovery of how many other major “influencers” were able to engage in this sickening behavior:
(a) Without instantly destroying their credibility
(b) While being financially enabled by (a) advertising from mainstream corporations, and (b) charitable donations
(c) While often being ignored by front-line Jewish advocacy and pro-Israel groups
Why I began applying my skills to fight back
The first thing to know about me is that I detest bullies, of any variety — and even more, anyone who enables them.
The second is that I’m the son of one of the last Jewish children the Nazis allowed to leave occupied Vienna, and lost a major swath of my ancestors to industrialized, anti-Semitic bully regimes (German and Russian).
This twin foundation compelled me to begin using the full range of my skills — in research, writing, editing, graphic and animation design, screenwriting and video production — whenever possible, to help defend Jews and Israel from lie-based incitement. I’ve also have had many successes in helping client law firms to prevail in high-value and complex litigation, and even helped gestate a project that used facts and humor to effectively neuter an insidiously immoral and anti-Constitutional ruling by the US Supreme Court. Combined, these skills and experiences have enabled me to approach my work from a unique perspective, for which numerous respected players in this space have expressed their admiration.
For personal and professional reasons, I produced my early work under a pen name, one of which was “John Ryan,” in tribute to the central hero of the Tom Clancy book and movie series.
In 2013, however, I began transitioning to publishing my work products under my own name, and from 2015 onward, exclusively did so.
My objective
Atop this foundation, my objective is to create a means to earn my living by developing bold new approaches to:
- Create knowledge tools and activism strategies to not only better defend, but to champion Israel, and the Jewish people
- Do these things in a way that draws in the widest possible swath of the general public, including children
To advance this objective, I submit for your consideration this sampling of my work in this realm, which I believe contains important insights into:
- How and why hatred of Israel and Jews is rising at a rate — despite the fortunes that have been and are being donated to groups that claim to be fighting this hate
- How American and other Western children are being injected with doses of poisonous hatred of Israel and Jews, through multiple vectors, including by our most influential institutions and cultural icons
- The extent to which existing models of fighting the war that has been declared on Israel and Jews are often ineffective — or are actually subverting both
If you like what you see, and would like to connect, I hope you’ll reach out.
(2) Work samples
VIDEO
“Which Abbas?”
After years of writing reports to combat anti-Semitism under a pen name (which became a somewhat accepted practice starting in the early 2000s), this was the first time I produced and narrated a video, anonymously. My hope was that the quality of my work and the citation of all my sources would outweigh any stigma of not knowing the identity of the person who produced it. (I now only publish my work under my name.)
Background: In April 2014, just as massive pressure was being put on Israel to negotiate a “peace” agreement with Mahmoud Abbas, he was receiving widespread acclaim from the news media for his remarks condemning the Holocaust. Although I am not an expert, I seemed to remember hearing about statements he’d made through the years that blamed the Jews for the Holocaust – but didn’t see any accounting of them in these laudatory news articles.
Once I researched this matter a bit, I became determined to produce a video that would help expose the fact that while Abbas makes reasonable-sounding statements to Western audiences, he often make statements that directly contradict them, to Arabic audiences.
Were there more time, I would have put forth a funding proposal for this project. Things were moving so fast, however, that I realized I could either put my effort into that, or into making the video. I decided to go ahead and make the video, with no funding or support. I also created a web page that contains documentation to support all of my key allegations.
Opposition to this video: Early on, I reached out to contacts within the pro-Israel community to ask for input on the video’s content, and once completed, for help in publicizing it. Almost uniformly, I was asked to not make this video. The reason: In varying forms, I was told that (a) Abbas is the figure that Israel is being forced to negotiate peace with, and (b) the more his image is publicly tarnished, the harder it will be to achieve this outcome, and (c) his replacement could be a lot worse. I rejected these requests, as I believe that only good will come from Americans becoming aware of:
- The reality of Abbas
- The fact that money is being taken out of their paychecks to enable him
My stance was called naive and short-sighted.
I went ahead anyway. I wrote, designed, narrated and edited this video, and posted itto YouTube, which took it down after a time, for an alleged violation of its policies(!). So I reposted it to Vimeo.
“Which Abbas?” mini-documentary from Jack Ryan on Vimeo.
Infographic: “Apartheid And Its Opponents”
I created this infographic in 2014 as part of an initial consulting contract for a major pro-Israel nonprofit in DC, which no longer exists, and chose not to use it.
