Toronto broadcaster Ralph Benmergui sought out the “real” Israel for his five-part, first-person Vision TV series, which was timed to coincide with Israel’s 60th anniversary celebrations.
Broadcaster Ralph Benmergui stands next to Israel’s security barrier in Bethlehem
“I wanted to show people the country, not the cartoon and the usual stereotypical representations,” he said in an interview over lunch recently.
Ralph Benmergui: My Israel, which was also screened at the Toronto Jewish Film Festival last month, covers a wide range of topics: Jerusalem; the security barrier; race and class; the influence of Orthodox Jews in Israeli society; and Israel’s future.
Benmergui, who had a 20-year career at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and now hosts the Benmergui in the Morning radio show on Jazz.FM 91, was not interested in regurgitating the media’s “extreme version” of Israel in which Israeli Jews and Palestinians Arabs are in constant conflict over a tiny contested piece of land. In this hackneyed journalistic formula, he explained, what usually emerges is a “good guy/bad guy” portrayal of Israel with little or no nuance
Benmergui, who describes himself as a “liberal, egalitarian Jew,” spent two weeks in Israel, mostly in the central corridor, gathering material. He was accompanied by, among others, executive producer Allan Novak and a cameraman.
Starting with the assumption that far too many Jewish visitors take the “Disney tour” of Israel, Benmergui was determined not to interview the usual array of politicians and experts, who would most likely bombard him with “spin” and thus divert him from a genuine understanding of a complex and evolving nation that is still very much a work of progress.
Instead, he talked to “real people,” ranging from ordinary Israeli Jews and Arabs to Palestinians. Whenever possible, he interviewed them in their living rooms or on the streets they usually frequent. “Above and beyond, I was listening to them.”
Philosophically, Benmergui approached Israel from a non-partisan point of view, being convinced that Canadian Jews are generally reluctant to criticize Israel when its policies warrant criticism.
“We have to find a deeper way to understand Israel without axe grinding,” he said, observing that such an understanding is of the utmost importance because Jews tend to be defined by Israel.
Proceeding from the assumption that Israel is a country pressed by enormous internal and external pressures, Benmergui believes that its serious social problems, from poverty to the widening gap between rich and poor, are trumped by security considerations.
Concerned that the Jewish state is being shaped by Orthodox Jews with a definite right-wing agenda, he said Israel should be more pluralistic and inclusive.
A Sephardi Jew born in Tangier, Morocco, 52 years ago, Benmergui argues that his fellow Sephardim are under-represented in positions of power despite recent signs of progress in this respect. “It’s systemic discrimination,” he claimed. “Israel is a European construct.”
In his opinion, Israel’s treatment of its substantial Arab minority leaves much to be desired. “Israeli Arabs should have better access to basic services,” he noted.
Turning to the Palestinians, he said they should not be dehumanized.
He also wonders whether the Holocaust should be such a focal point of Israel’s identity. “As a Sephardi Jew, the Holocaust does not resonate as much for me.”
Benmergui’s critique is a function of his devotion to Israel. “Israel matters to me. It’s part and parcel of my existence.”
As a youth, he idealized Israel. “It was a utopian dream with heroic Jews, a fairyland.”
He first questioned Israel’s direction during its 1982 invasion of Lebanon. The first Palestinian uprising – which brought Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip into sharper focus as a legitimate issue – clarified and crystallized his thinking.
He has visited Israel four times, the first time in 1990, shortly after Iraq invaded Kuwait.
Benmergui, whose family left Tangier in 1957, has visited Morocco once since then. “I got to see where my parents worked and found the woman who took care of my two older brothers.”
His father, Mair, was an administrator in a Jewish hospital, while his mother, Rachel, was a nurse there.
They decided to leave Morocco following the rise of pan-Arab nationalism in the wake of Israel’s creation, the advent of Moroccan independence, the Arabization of Moroccan society and the outbreak of the 1956 Suez war.
They chose Canada rather than Israel due to their perception that Moroccan Jews were not fully appreciated in Israel. “My mother said, ‘Why would we go from a place where we were treated like dirt by Arabs to a place where we would be treated like dirt by Jews?’”
Culturally, his Moroccan Jewish heritage is very important to him. “It has defined me,” said Benmergui, whose wife is of Polish Jewish origin.
Raised in a Jewish neighbourhood in Toronto, where he attended a local Jewish school, Benmergui was originally an actor and a standup comedian, performing for Mark Breslin’s Yuk Yuk’s comedy troupe.
At 27, he turned to journalism and entered Ryerson Polytechnical Institute. After he graduated, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation offered him a research job in Winnipeg.
Within eight months, he got his first big break as host of Nightlines, a late-night music show on CBC’s stereo network. From there, he segued to a succession of gigs. He hosted Prime Time, a radio program, and then moved on to co-host CBC-TV’s Midday, where he polished his interviewing skills. As well, he hosted Friday Night With Ralph Benmergui and Benmergui Live.
“I liked the CBC,” said Benmergui, a contract employee who was never on staff. “I got to do the shows I believed in. I really believe in public broadcasting.”
Before leaving the CBC, he produced a Christmas special for Stuart McLean and completed Seekers, a Vision television series about five people in search of spirituality. He says he joined Jazz.FM 91 because he had been at the CBC long enough.
The radio station hired him not as a jazz authority but as a broadcaster with a fine track record. “I know a lot more about jazz today than when I was hired,” said Benmergui, who wakes up at 4:30 a.m. so that he can launch Benmergui in the Morning at 6 a.m.
A voracious reader who often discusses his favourite books on air, he hopes to compile a book based on Ralph Benmergui: My Israel.
“I’m talking to an agent about it,” he said.
And much further in the future, he wants to go to the United States and write a spinoff, Ralph Benmergui: My America.
