jewish film festival

the jewish film festival often has films by jews instead of films about the jewish experience. i saw a film today that was a perfect example. the film was white : a memoir of color. 

white: a memoir of color is about a jewish couple who identify more as white than jewish who  contemplate adopting a child of color. not once in this film is there a reference to why they might think it would be difficult to raise a black or biracial child as jewish . this couple eventually end up adopting a biracial black child and a fully black child. not once do they reference this as being an issue for the adoptive child. though there are black jewish people they usually have black jewish parents who share their experience of being a minority within a minority. it must be more difficult for a white jewish person to have a black jewish child. . even if one is not a very ritualistically jewish person this could be a challenge. in fact the less religious one is the more the child will be thrown into situations where he/she is different in so many ways. again , not one mention of this in the film. i'm guessing this film is aimed at the general viewing public so religion is not mentioned. this film would not have even been in the jewish film festival had the filmmaker not been jewish. i found the film to be honest and informative, but not from the jewish standpoint, just the white standpoint. 

i consider myself to be more jewish than white.

i have heard that many young christian women who are putting their babies up for adoption want to know that they are giving their child up to a church going christian family, so im not sure why religion was not mentioned. then again perhaps in the case of a bi-racial baby the birth mother cares less what the religion of the adoptive parents making it less of an issue. who knows.

i admit that though i could see myself adopting a chinese baby or a hispanic baby  i would find it more difficult to adopt a black or bi-racial child. i don't think that i could handle it. i think that some people can handle it , and for them this is wonderful. i would have liked to have seen this film document more of what the experience of adopting a black child in the jewish community would be like.  i thought this movie was going to be like that . it wasn't.

The Jewish Museum New York | Art Exhibition | New York Jewish Film Festival 2012: Films and Times

The Jewish Museum New York | Art Exhibition | New York Jewish Film Festival 2012: Films and Times
its that time of year again. almost . the jewish film festival will be january 11-26 , 2012. there will be a lot of good films. if you don't decide to go i will review the ones that i like on this blog so you will know which will be worth catching at a later date.

Socalled - You Are Never Alone

sunday night at the jewish film festival in nyc i saw a documentary the socalled movie about josh dolgin who calls himself socalled. he is a jewish musician in canada who mixes klezmer, jazz and hip hop music together to get a most amazing sound.
josh dolgin is as secular as they come but he is very drawn to klezmer music and jewish culture. though he hates religion he has to admit that klezmer music is part of jewish culture and that jewish culture is only jewish culture because it comes from  judaism, so in a round about way he admits that he has to appreciate judaism. he actually states this in the film. to me this statement is so profound. and so honest. on the other hand it really shows the power of music.to someone who might not otherwise connect to judaism  music has the power of forging a spiritual connection  that on a logical level he might not explore.

jews in the civil war

today i saw a film  about jews who fought in the civil war. it was called jewish soldiers in blue and gray. in fact in was the premiere showing of this documentary. the first issue that was addressed was that jews had  to decide which side to fight for.  many families had members who lived in the south as well as in the north. no matter which side they chose there were still jews fighting jews.
many interesting  facts were revealed in this film. although the civil war was being fought to abolish slavery it was not the only freedom that was created.
before the civil war the only clergy allowed to be army chaplains were christian.. during the civil war many jewish soldiers served their country and they needed a jewish clergyman as a chaplain. thanks to abraham lincoln there now are jewish chaplains in the american army.
general robert e. lee who was general of the confederate army was accommodating to jews who wanted to observe jewish holidays. general ulysses grant of the union army on the other hand was a big anti-semite. when he took over parts of the south he expelled jews for 12 days from tennessee , mississippi and kentucky . it was only 12 days because many jews rallied president lincoln who reprimanded general grant and repealed the decree of expulsion.
torah observance among the jewish soldiers in the civil war ran the gamut. many were secular and yet there were those who were quite observant. one veteran of the civil war went so far as displaying the kosher dishes he used when he was in the civil war on his mantle piece .there were passover seders as well in the army . they even had matzahs imported from cincinnati for one seder.
jewish soldiers blue and gray also recounts the stories of jews who held high positions in the army on both sides during the civil war.
after the civil war many anti semites wanted to say that jews did not serve in the civil war so in 1895  a jewsh activist named simon wolf compiled a book called the american jew as patriot, soldier and citizen which listed 7000 jewish american soldiers who served during the civil war. in 1895 there were still many civil war veterans around to compile such a book.
after viewing this documentary i feel a great deal of hakaras hatov toward abraham lincoln. not only did he abolish slavery he also preserved religious freedom for people of all religions in  the united states. he was especially kind to the jews. i will certainly  view the upcoming president's day as more than just  another day off of work this year.

Lies My Father Told Me

       i saw this movie today at the jewish film festival in nyc. it was excellent. it is the story of a six year old jewish boy in 1920's montreal and the relationship between him and his orthodox jewish grandfather. it stars yossi yadin as the grandfather and jeffrey lynas as the grandson. the grandson david would join his zaida who was a peddler every sunday . his zaida would teach him about life and the torah's view on life. at home daviid's secular father would berate religion as well as chase after dead end get rich quick inventions.
the relationship between grandfather and grandson was delightful. the little boy who played david was precious. the depiction of religious life was outstanding. it was a real slice of jewish life that most of us have never experienced because we weren't yet born in the 1920's. lies my father told me was filmed in the early 70's when  secular jewish filmmakers  still remembered what  yiddishkeit was .the portrayal of orthodox jews was quite authentic.
lies my father told me has recently been restored . its not yet available on netflix and its not currently available at the new york public library. there is a website for the movie itself that is selling a restored version of the movie. fyi this movie is rated r.


                                             

sholem aleichem

its that time of year again. the new york jewish film festival is here. last night i saw the movie sholem aleichem : laughing in the darkness. it was quite informative.
sholem aleichem was a yiddish writer who wrote the ever popular tevye stories of  which fiddler on the roof  was based . i read the short stories about tevye when i was a teenager. they were very different from the hollywood movie  fiddler on the roof.  i did have the fortune to see the yiddish movie tevye der milker which was filmed in new jersey in 1939 and stars maurice schwartz (  and btw this is also playing at the jewish film festival this year) . the 1939 movie is a must see.  if you miss it at the festival you can also get it from the new york public library. first of all the ending was very different. though chava marries a goy she returns to her father after there is a pogrom and she finds that her goyishe husbands family stole her mother's wedding dress. i liked it better than the hollywood version. all the peasants speak yiddish in the 1939 movie. its such a hoot. once you see the original tevye movie you will have a different view of the subsequent  movie.
sholem aleichem wrote about the old jewish world in russia that was changing. modernity was approaching. though he himself did not end up remaining frum in his adult life he did believe in jews marrying jews. all four of his daughters married jewish men.
aside from the actual story itself the old shtetl footage was fabulous. it captured the joy of life that those in the shtetl had. it showed the genuine smiles of children and adults. there was much hardship in the shtetl , but even so these people were able to smile.
sholem aleichem's characters suffered, but had a hard time accepting the hardships that befell them. this is true about jewish people to this day. this is why we complain so much. goyim on the other hand are able to just say 'its g-d's will ' and they muddle through it. ive seen this continually at work. something bad happens and they accept it. the jewish people complain and try to improve the circumstances. its so hard to accept the worst as being inevitable. i guess this is why the israeli national atthem is hatikvah (the hope).
long after sholem aleichem's 1916 death he became well respected for his writings in russia. this continued even after the 1952 murder of yiddish writers in russia.. he was respected by jews and gentiles alike.
sholem aleichem is still respected in russia as a writer until today. last night was the premeire of sholem aleichem laughing in the darkness. the film's director joseph dorman was there, bel kaufman , sholem aleichem's almost 100 year old granddaughter as well as several of the film's editors, sound technician and others. there was a young woman in the audience who was born in the former soviet union. she said that she had grown up very secular but on her twelveth birthday her grandmother gave her a book by shoelem aleichem so that she would know her about her jewish heritage.  now she lives in new york and is living a jewish life. so even now sholem aleichem's purpose is being realized . he did not want people to forget the jewish world that had existed in europe even though he himself had become a secular jew in his adulthood. he felt that even if you did not continue all of the traditions that it was important to know where you come from.
in this documentary they focus a lot on fiddler on the roof  because it is the one sholem aleichem work that most people have heard of. the film also seems to think that sholem aleichem would have liked the fact that at the end of fiddler on the roof when they are leaving russia he sees his daughter chava who has married the goy and tells her she should live and be well. the filmmakers seemed to have thought that the evolution of sholem aleichem would be that he would have accepted intermarriage. i dont agree.
according to the film  when sholem aleichem had first come to america in 1905 he did not like what had happend to american jewry. the american jews did not like his stories and plays because they did not romantisize the old life and they just wanted to fit into the good life in america. sholem aleichem felt a sadness because jews were living a life in the united states that was better than anywhere else the jews had lived and yet they were becoming less and less observant and reliquishing all of their jewish culture. after such a bad reception he returned to russia. this does not seem like a man who would be so accepting of intermarriage even in the late sixties when fiddler on the roof came on the scene. fiddler on the roof had to be more accepting because by then intermarriage was on the rise and even one of the film's creators was intermarried. perhaps this documentary felt they had to say sholem aleichem's feelings on intermarriage would have changed because of modern audiences and the continuing rise of intermarriage these days. i for one don't buy it.
eventually sholem aleichem returned to the united states. at his 1916 funeral many public officials were in attendance. according to the film his funeral was the largest in new york city to this day. though he might have had a chilly reception at first in the united states , it had indeed changed. .the american jews cried at his funeral. the magnitude of his funeral also proved the power of the jewish community in the united states. sholem aleichem , a jewish folk writer passes away and many non-jewish politicians attend his funeral.
now that i have seen this documentary i feel compelled to read sholem aleichem's stories again. this is why i love the jewish film festival. you see a film and it broadens your interests.

oy gevald!

if you want to know why we are still in galus see the documentary film gevald. i did and now i know that the biggest danger for the state of israel is not the arabs, its the jews. apparently those who are ostensibly fervently orthodox have lost site of what ahavas yisroel is.
i saw gevald this past monday at the jewish film festival in new york city. gevald chronicles the ideologies of rabbi shmuel chaim pappenheim and the late rabbi avraham ravitz.
rabbi pappenheim hates secular jews and anyone who does not believe as he does. he is from a sect of chassidim that are a bankrolled by satmar chassidim in new square. this sect is anti-israel and only leave their enclave to rally against the state of israel. for them it is a great honor to be jailed for rallying against the state of israel. for their children they distribute propoganda books that equate secular jews to the nazis not unlike how the arabs distribute anti-jewish propoganda books to their children.
rabbi avraham ravitz was perhaps just as strict as rabbi pappenheim, but he believes in working within the system to fight for charedi rights as opposed to hooligan tactics. he and his wife had a home that was open to guests. his wife was actually shown on screen as well as one of his sons and some of his grandchildren. according to rabbi ravitz the jews of meah shearim danced with joy when israel became a state. he even showed a picture of it on screen. alot has happened in 60 years.
there is an old joke about how if you have two jews in a room you will have three opinions. so you can imagine that within a country full of jews that everyone will have his opinions and then some. to me someone like rabbi ravitz who tried to change israel within the structure of the government is more respectable even if i dont agree with all that he stood for. rabbi pappenheim on the other hand is a pure disgrace to the jewish people . he hates other jews for not being exactly as he is and defends his actions by saying that this is what the torah wants. it is not what the torah wants. the bais hamikdash was destroyed because of sinas chinam and because we cannot seem to get along with each other. apparently we haven't learned a thing.
when israel was established the secular jews did do alot wrong to the religious jews , especially the yemenite jews, but two wrongs dont make a right. if the religious route is the high road then we should live it, not stoop to the lowest level. if you want change to really happen, you have to seek it in a way that will be taken seriously. it seems that rabbi ravitz tried to do this. rabbi pappenheim would prefer to be a haylegah thug.

making trouble... again

as anyone who reads this blog knows, im a big fan of movies and an even bigger fan of movies with jewish themes. i reviewed the movie making trouble almost two years ago after i viewed it at the jewish film festival. since i wrote this review january 23, 2008 which was at the beginning of my blogging career i thought this movie deserves a second mention for those of you who may not have seen this review, or the movie for that matter.
this review is a bit updated from my last review because after a second viewing of the film i realized that i had mixed up some of the facts in my first review! anyway, here goes....
making trouble is a film directed by rachel talbot and presented by the jewish womens archive. the movie is about funny jewish women, featuring molly picon, fanny brice, sophie tucker , joan rivers, gilda radnor , and wendy wasserstein. though joan rivers is not the youngest of the lot, she is the only one still alive. the movie begins with four younger jewish comediennes- judy gold, jackie hoffman, cory kahaney and jessica kirson sitting at katz's deli discussing the topic of jewish women in comedy and introducing these legendary ladies of comedy.
the first great lady of jewish comedy featured was molly picon. she grew up in philadelphia and started out performing in vaudeville. subsequently she starred in many yiddish films and plays. to me she is legendary even though i had never heard of her until i happened upon her 1980's autobiography at the library. after reading about her life i watched many of her films on video from the library and became a huge fan.the woman did somersaults at eighty!! one of the most touching scenes recounted in the film was how molly went to the d.p. camps after the holocaust and performed for the survivors. in an interview, she spoke of a mother who held out her small child and begged molly to perform saying " my child has never heard laughter. perform for her!" and she spoke of child survivors who she had performed for outside who insisted she perform even in the rain. it was amazing to see film clips of an exuberant molly playing a teenager in yiddle mitn fiddle at 37 years of age.
next up was fanny brice who was quite a star in her time as well. my parents have always remembered her playing baby snooks. fanny brice was so popular that a betty boop cartoon even features her in cartoon. fanny brice was a beautiful woman, but since she didnt posses the blond haired, blue eyed look of the time so she became a comedic actress instead of the romantic lead. she eventually got a nose job to look less jewish. from the footage she looked very jewish , but contrary to what many say, she was not ugly. apparently she did not have a yiddish accent, but affected one when she performed.
sophie tucker , who id heard of but knew the least about was also featured. she grew up in connecticut to an observant jewish family. after a brief marriage and the birth of a son she went off to become a performer at the tender age of 17. to me she seemed the least jewish of all of the comediennes featured even though her life was very much entwined in the jewish community.
sophie's grand-niece was featured giving insight about her aunt. eerily this niece very much resembles her great aunt.
next up was joan rivers. when they showed a recent clip of her it was heartbreaking. she has done so much plastic surgery that she looks more like jocelyn wildenstein than jocelyn wildenstein herself. id seen old footage of joan rivers when i was a child, but this was the first time i had seen old footage of hers as an adult. she was truly funny from the start. the thing that i have always like about joan rivers is that she never denies her jewishness. in fact she owns it. upon viewing her pre-plastic surgery self, i realized that she never needed any to begin with.
gilda radner was always my favorite on saturday night live. i read a lovely book about her by alan zwiebel called bunny, bunny. alan zwiebel was featured in her retrospective in the film. the film included my favorite snl faux commercial for jewess jeans. i hadnt seen it in years. it was just as funny now as it had been then . they also showed a clip with bill murray and john belushi where gilda lights the menorah and says the bracha over the candles. they also showed clips of lisa lupner and roseann roseanadann.
last but not least was wendy wasserstein. though i admit that ive only read a few of her works i think that she was truly amazing. it is so unfortunate that she died so young. i met her in person a few years ago when she did a book reading at barnes and noble for her book shiksa goddess. wendy was such a regular person. she appeared to be the type of person you'd want to be friends with. she was so real. the interviews for this film were taped right before her passing. in fact she passed away before the film was made. it was hard to watch those recent clips of her because she looked like she was in so much pain. thankfully there were other clips of her when she was more vibrant. when the sisters rosensweig came out they wanted her to change the name because it sounded too jewish. why did she have to call it the sisters rosensweig? they said that people around the country would not be able to relate to it. to which she replied " people in around the country don't have sisters?"
i appreciated the contrast between the younger jewish comediennes and the older ones. as you are hearing them retell the stories of these great ladies, you hope that one day their careers will be retold on film.
i wished the film would never end, but alas it did. it was perfection. i highly recommend it. it was a fabulous retrospective with an equal mix of facts i had already known and facts i was honored to learn. once in awhile it is screened around the united states and its now available on dvd through the jwa.

more ny jewish film festival

i havent attended as many films during this years new york jewish film festival as i usually do. not as many films grabbed my attention as in previous years.
today i saw the film in search of the bene israel which is a documentary about the jews in india. although i am quite certain that this years film choices were chosen way before the terror attacks in mumbai, i found this film to be an ode to the jewish community of india.
the premise of the story is that the documentarian's grandmother wants her to visit jewish india and see where her grandmother came from. what makes this film even more interesting is that this jewish grandmother ended up marrying a muslim , left her faith , and after about 60 years she decided to come back to judaism and try to get her granddaughter interested in it as well.
sadia shepard, the filmmaker was not exactly raised jewish . her mother and mothers mother were jewish, but she also has a father and grandfathers who are not jewish- namely muslim and pakistani. it seems she identifies with all her religions. she admitted to attending bene israel high holiday services at a synogogue in the village (nyc, not a village in mumbai).
sadia shepard went to india to teach at ort and subsequently met members of the jewish community in india. in the film she recounted the story of the shipwrecked boats and the seven women and seven men on them and how from these people are the bene israel .
at the beginning of the film a shul in india is shown where they are singing a most beautiful version of adon olam.
many of the bene israel have now moved to israel . i know of many in the united states. there is still a semblence of a community in india, though it is quite small.
sadia shepard did not meet rivka or gavriel holtzberg when she was in india. they immigrated to india after she had left india.
though she is still exploring her jewishness, she brought her mother with her to this new york screening in true jewish fashion.
sadia shepard also wrote a book about the bene israel and of her familal origins called the girl from foreign. i actually have the book , but i have not read it yet.
i think that it is so incredible that jewish people have lived all around the world, and have maintained their identities as jews.
i would definitely recommend this film.

the new york jewish film festival

today was the first day of the 18th annual jewish film festival. i saw the movie emotional arithmetic, starring susan sarandon, gabriel byrne and max von sydow . this movie is about 3 holocaust survivors who spent time in the same transit camp in france who meet years later. its not so much about their time spent at drancey , but about how they move on with their lives. how they deal with the trauma of what they went through when others in their life have no idea what they had experienced.

emotional arithmetic would make a good tv movie. though powerful, it wasnt flashy enough for the big screen. on the small screen this would not be an issue.

the best part of seeing this movie today was susan sarandon's appearance for the q&a after the movie. she looks incredible for her age. it was nice to hear about how the movie was filmed in a month, how the director was a french jew and how the wife of matt cohen, the author of the book the movie is based on , was so pleased the book was turned in to a movie.

emotional arithmetic is available on dvd, but im not sure of how its obtained. apparently susan sarandon's sister who lives in chappaqua , new york bought the dvd and this is how susan sarandon knows its available on dvd.

film fanatic

today is the last day i will be attending the ny jewish film festival which ends tomorrow. one of the films i viewed today was "film fanatic" about a haredi guy in israel who put together a bunch of dvd movies on very frum themes and sold them to his haredi target market. these films were so 'low budget' that they were almost like home movies . dvds went where videos could not have because the haredi do not have tv sets, but apparently they do own computers! eventually , when this filmmaker realized he needed better monetary backing he actually made a film that others beside the yeshiva community might watch. still pretty kosher, but he employed chilonim to help out. film fanatic is two and a half stars out of a possible five. its entertaining, but not great. i wasnt totally convinced that the yeshivish community would welcome any type of films in to their homes like the movie made it seem.

making trouble

today i saw the best movie at the jewish film festival so far. i viewed the film "making trouble" directed by rachel talbot , presented by the jewish women's archive. the movie is about funny jewish women , featuring molly picon, fanny bryce, sophie tucker, joan rivers, gilda radnor , and wendy wasserstein. joan rivers, though not the youngest of the lot, is the only one still alive. the movie began with four younger comediennes -judy gold, jackie hoffman, and two others whose names escape me- sitting at katz's deli talking about being a jewish woman in comedy as well as introducing the legendary ladies of comedy. the first great lady of jewish comedy featured was molly picon. she grew up in philadelphia and started up in vaudeville and subsequently starred in many yiddish films and plays. to me she is legendary even though id never heard of her until i happened upon her 1980's autobiography at the library. after reading about her life i took out many of her films from the library and became a huge fan. the woman did somersaults eighty!! one of the most touching scenes presented was how molly went to the d.p. camps after the holocaust and performed for the survivors. in an interview she spoke of a mother who held out her small child and begged molly to perform saying "my child has never heard laughter, perform for her!" and she spoke of child survivors who she had performed for outside who insisted she perform even in the rain. and she did! it was also amazing to see film clips of and exuberant molly playing a teenager in yiddle mitn fiddle at 36 yrs old.
next up was fanny bryce who was quite a star in her time as well . my parents have always remembered her playing baby snooks. fanny bryce was so popular that a betty boop cartoon even features her in cartoon. fanny bryce was a beautiful woman , but since she didnt possess the blonde haired , blue-eyed look of the time , she became a comedic actress instead of the romantic lead. she even eventually got a nose job to look less jewish. to me , from the footage , she looked very jewish, but was not ugly. apparently she did not have a yiddish accent , but affected one when she performed.
sophie tucker , who id heard of, but knew the least about was also featured. she grew up in connecticut to a frum family and after a brief failed marriage and the birth of a son , she went off to become a performer at the tender age of 17. to me, she seemed the least jewish out of all of the comediennes featured, although her life was very much entwined in the jewish community. her father was a doctor and when he treated prostitutes they would say that they were actresses by trade. so when sophie embarked on a career in show biz you can imagine what her family thought! sophie's grand - niece was featured giving insight about her aunt. eerily this niece very much resembles her great aunt.
joan rivers was featured and when they showed a recent act of hers it was heartbreaking. she's done so much plastic surgery she looks more like jocelyn wildenstein than jocelyn wildenstein herself. ive seen old footage of joan rivers before, but this was the first time id seen old footage of her as an adult. she truly was funny from the start. the thing ive always liked about joan rivers is that she never denies her jewishness, in fact she owns it. upon viewing her pre-plastic surgery self, i realize she never needed any to begin with.
gilda radnor was always my favorite on saturday night live. i read a lovely book about her by alan zwiebel called 'bunny, bunny' years ago . alan zwiebel was featured in her retrospective in the film . they featured my personal favorite snl faux commercial for jewess jeans. i hadnt seen it in years , and it was just as funny now as it hadbeen then. they also featured a snl channukah skit with bill murray and john belushi where gilda lights the menorah and says one of the brachas over the candles. and of course they featured lisa lupner and roseanne rosannadan.
last but not least was wendy wasserstein. i admit that ive only read a few of her works , but she was truly amazing. it is so unfortunate that she died so young. i met her in person when she did a book reading at barnes and noble when shiksa goddess was published. wendy was such a regular person. she appeared to be the type of person you 'd want to be friends with. she was so real. her interviews for this film were taped right before her passing. in fact she passed away before the film was made. it was hard to watch those recent clips of her because she looked like she was in so much pain. thankfully there were other clips of her where she was more vibrant. its so sad that her life was cut so short. when the sisters rosensweig came out they wanted her to change the name because it sounded too jewish. they said that people in the boondocks couldnt relate to it. to which she replied "people in the boondocks dont have sisters?"
i wished the film would never end, but alas it did. it was perfection . i highly recommend it. it was a fabulous retrospective with an equal mix of facts i had already known and facts i was honored to learn.

murder of a hatmaker

i saw another film at the jewish film festival today. it was called "murder of a hatmaker" . it is the story of a french jewish high fashion hatmaker who ultimately met her death in auchwitz. it was a beautiful film . it showed life in france for jewish people before the war. what was wonderful about the film is that one got to really see what kind of life this woman led and get a sense of her beautiful creations before finding out her ultimate fate. i think that its important to celebrate the lives of those who unfortunately lost their lives during the holocaust besides just recounting how they perished. both aspects are equally important to be remembered.
after the film the filmmaker who is the niece of the hatmaker spoke. she resembles her deceased aunt very much. my most favorite , yet chilling response the filmmaker gave was that she did not feel that there is much anti-semitism in france nowadays, when asked about the current state of anti-semitsm in france. i hope her opinion is correct, but im not quite sure where the truth lies.

opening day at the jewish film festival

yesterday was opening day at the jewish film festival. i saw two movies yesterday . i saw tehillim and hebrew lesson . tehillim was about a modern orthodox woman whose husband leaves her and her two kids and the aftermath. the father in law was a bit more religious than his daughter in law. one of the film producers was in attendance. i found it quite enjoyable, but for those who like films with nice pat endings it may not be .
the second film that i saw was called a hebrew lesson ,which was directed by david offeck who also directed number seventeen which was the movie about identifying the unidentified victim of an israeli bus bombing. one of the directors (not david offeck) was in attendance as well. hebrew lesson is an engaging as well as disturbing film. it chronicles the lives of two chinese women, one german woman , and one peruvian woman who are in an ulpan in israel and are all involved with jewish israeli men ( i know ive said that i normally boycott these types of films, but i didnt realize there was such a strong theme of intermarriage in the film.) the last individual featured at the ulpan was sasha a jewish russian born man. what i found disturbing was that at the expense of making an interesting story it made it seem like the majority of people who want to make aliyah to israel are non-jewish women involved with jewish men. what i found disturbing was the way these people who were presented as the "new Israelis" aren't even jewish. although, to be fair they did broach the subject of the german woman converting and without giving away her whole story, there was alot of dialogue with her about this especially since she was German. they were teaching judaism as just a culture to fit in with. although i cant say that i have any concrete plans to move to israel, it made me feel at least more strongly than usual, that i should move to israel just to make sure that jews will actually comprise a majorty of new olim. i think that they sacrificed a little bit of reality to make it more interesting. they wanted to make israel seem so cosmopolitan that anyone would want to live there that they didnt show why it would be so special for an actual jewish person to want to live in the jewish state. the few stories they showed that were jewish stories of new olim such as the russian guy and the parisian jewish ulpan teacher were uncomfortably overshadowed by the stories of the non-jewish olim. one of the chinese olim went so far as making a documentary about the illegal chinese immigrants to israel, which actually made one begin to question what the identity of an israeli is based on . is being jewish the essence of being israeli? moreover, IF this can be a question, what a sorry state the state of israel is in.

new york jewish film festival

tomorrow marks the first day of the new york jewish film festival. i can't wait. usually im one of the youngest atttendees and this is not because im that young. many of the films that are included in the festival are quite excellent, i just think that alot of "young" people, and i use that term loosely, dont often attend. perhaps this go round will be different. alot of the films go on to have lives of their own. little jerusalem was at the jff a few years ago and was later at the quad. the ritchie boys was shown at makor several go rounds. a personal favorite was "shalom y'all" about the jews of the south featuring the filmmaker's almost 100 year old grandfather who fled ny for the south. its especially touching to look back at now seeing as the filmmaker had grown up in new orleans. kinky friedman as well as a black jewish chief of police from south carolina were featured in shalom y'all. i think this year too many holocaust films are featured, and not enough just plain jewish life features. the jewish museum does a really good job organizing the festival. unfortunatley not as many orthodox jews attend as one might think would. of course every festival includes the requisite intermarriage film which i always boycott.