Ernst Bloch, a German Jewish philosopher who escaped the Nazi genocide in exile in the US (and who nonetheless considered the US to be heir-apparent to the fascism he experienced in Europe) devoted the years during and following the Second World War to a monumental study of hope. For Bloch, wishes and daydreams are not idle distractions, but crucial guides, they must be nourished, elaborated and implemented as a matter of practical necessity. In 2024, Bread & Puppet co-founder and director Peter Schumann turned to Bloch's ecstatic assertions of the indispensability of hope in the face of genocide as the guiding theme of shows, paintings, and the 2025 calendar. In this work, Schumann takes inspiration from Bloch to advocate that we US taxpayers must fight against our complicity in the ongoing Nakba, the cultural and physical genocide of Palestine and Palestinians.
