Barak Lurie, Between Metaphor and Reality

When I was in my teens, living in Israel, each Friday, when returning from work, my mother brought home the weekend edition of the newspaper Yediot A’charonot, meaning, ‘latest news.’ In each weekend edition there was a carton by Ra’anan Lurie. I so vividly remember that it was the first thing I used to seek and read in the many-page newspaper weekend edition and I was always fascinated by the wit of the message the cartoon carried.

There is a word I often use, which is Bashert. It is a word in Yiddish, its meaning is destiny, fate; it also means any good or fortuitous match.

When I finally realized that Barak, the Hebrew word for lightning, last name Lurie, an attorney, a familiar face in the community, involved with many organizations for Jewish and Israeli causes, to mention a few are the Jewish National Fund (JNF), StandWithUs (SWU) and Prager University, holding an hour talk show, each Sunday at 10:00am, on KRLA 870AM by Salem Media Group, America’s leading radio broadcaster, is the son of famous political cartoonist Ra’anan Lurie I knew that it was bashert for me to call him and ask for an interview. And so I did.

I started our conversation with asking the whereabouts of Ra’anan Lurie; I was told Ra’anan, who was born in Israel, now 83 years old, is well and living in New York City.

NG: “Where were you born?”

BL: “I was born in Israel and when I was three years old, my father was given an opportunity to move to the United States and assume the position of the political cartoonist for Life Magazine, a position he held until the Magazine shut its doors in 1972.”

NG: “What is that makes you spread your word publicly, whether on radio, or in participating in causes so dear to the Jewish people?”

BL: “I am a small voice; I also write about the issues on my blog: http://baraklurie.com/. I hold conservative values, which I believe will save the USA and Israel all the same. Some of my talent my father gifted to me.”

Barak is one of four siblings, two boys and two girls. All three siblings are leaning Liberals, while his parents and he are conservatives and he is very close to his father, in fact, an admirer.

Some of his father’s cartoons are hanging on his office walls, one, from the 1980s, which depicts the West as an ostrich, with its head stuck in the Islamo-Arab-Iranian oil pipes … a subject so apropos today, with Europe, China and other states so very eager to turn a blind eye and trade with Iran, the worlds’ number one sponsor of terrorism, worldwide.

NG: “How else are you like your father?”

BL: “I have in me some of my father’s talent; he gave me a gift. I grew up with his cartoons and learned the politics of the world through his cartoonist’s eyes, which carried a political message through a metaphor. I learned to think through metaphors, which I use in my law practice, my radio show, my writing and life in general, all appear to be very effective.”

One example is the fence, with just a small portion of it a wall, many dare calling an “apartheid wall.” Israel has built this fence to separate her citizens from the Arab territory, from where terror did not stop coming and killed very many innocent Israeli citizens. After Israel built this separation fence, the terror almost ended. Barak uses a metaphor comparing this fence to a fence in a Safari Game Reserve, erected in order to separate the lions from [killing] the zebras and the Springboks.

Barak states that his love for Israel is deep and profound.

“Because without Israel we cannot be the Jews we are, wherever we live,” he claims. “Israel backs us up. Where in the past we were voiceless, guests in many countries and to plead for our existence we came to the host counrty’s leaders and government. Now they come to us; now they ask us to speak at AIPAC (The American Israel Public Affairs Committee). My goal is to make and keep Israel strong, there and overseas with the Jewish and non-Jewish communities.”

I arrive at the interview just as Benjamin Netanyahu and Ha’Likud Party announced their election 2015 victory and Barak used his metaphoric approach saying, “Obama is Antonio Salieri to Bibi’s Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.”

NG: “Where did that inspiration come from?”

BL: “I thank my Dad and Mom, Tamar, for the great wisdom and clarity they have given me, both values I pass onto my children.”

It is very obvious that Barak simply adores his father. His eyes also shine when he shows me a photo of his three children and though a late bloomer in creating a family unit, his heart speaks volumes about how fortunate he is to be married to his wife and the mother of his children.

My last question was, while Barak was openly hinting he has to go on with his legal work: “How do you manage your time between your wife, children, career, and political and philanthropy activities?”

Barak leads me to the huge windows in his 7th floor office and points a finger and says, “There, on the close by hill is my home, three minutes ride to my office;” then the finger moves to point at a close by neighborhood and he continues, “There is my children’s school. All the important aspects of my life are in the close by vicinity, which allow me to maximize my time with my family, the most important factor in my life.”

Barak, who often appears on the Jamie Glasov Gang Internet show (http://jamieglazov.com/) is politically and within his Jewish faith a conservative. However, to keep a cordial home, he attends reform synagogue services and is a follower of Rabbi Brandon Adam Gaines. (see the video below)

Barak Lurie, a well-rounded individual, a model of a citizen, a model of a Jew, a friend of Israel and the world community at large.

I am a one pleased individual to have been given the bashert opportunity to meet Barak, the son of the cartoonist Ra’anan Lurie of whom I have such fond memories.