Videos on Jewish subjects in the Leyburn Library
(See selected film descriptions at bottom of page)
Feature Films
European
The Truce [French] PN1997 .T7784 1998 (DVD)
Wondrous Oblivion [British] PN1997.2
.W65 2007 (DVD)
Left Luggage [Dutch, Flemish]
PT5881.16.R48 L44 2001 (DVD)
Only Human [Spanish]
PN1995.9.C55 O559 2006 (DVD)
Le Golem [French]
PG5038
.W49 G6 1990 (VHS)
The Garden of the Finzi-Continis [Italian]
PQ4807.A79 G513 1987
The Shop on Main Street [Czech]
PN1997 .S477
Les Violons du bal [French]
PN1997 .V528 1992
Leo the Pig Farmer [British]
(VHS) PN1997 .L366 1994
The Governess [British]
PN1997 .G678 1998
(DVD)
Israeli
or Israeli theme:
Close to Home PN1995.9 .F67 C56 2007 (DVD)
Campfire PN1995.9 .F67 C36 2004 (DVD)
Devarim PJ5054 .S2643 Z33133 2006 (DVD)
Ushpizin (Guests) PN1997.2 .U84 2006
(DVD)
Passover Fever PN1995.9 .F7 P33 1995
(DVD)
The megilleh PJ5129.M26 M44 2007 (DVD)
Bonjour Monsieur Shlomi PN1997.2 K63 2004
(DVD)
Yana's Friends PN1997 .Y236 2001
(DVD)
Broken Wings PN1997 ,K5264 2004
DVD)
James' Journey to Jerusalem PN1997.2 .J36 2004
(DVD)
Time of Favor PN1995 .T5274 2002
(DVD)
The Summer of Aviya
PJ5054 .H4969 H34 (VHS)
Kadosh PN1997
.K24 1999
As If Nothing Happened PN1997 .K45 2001
Song of the Siren PN1997 .S3888 1997
A Woman Called Golda DS126.6 .M42 W6 1982 (2 tapes)
I Love You, Rosa PN1997
.A212 1990
Noa at Seventeen PN1997 .N65 1987
Siege
PN1997 .S491 1988
They Were Ten DS125 .T5
1987 (DVD)
My Michael PJ5054 .O9 M513
1987
An Intimate Story PN1997
.I516 1987
Fictitious Marriage PN1997 .F398 1992
Kuni Leml in Tel Aviv PN1997 .K82 1993
Crossfire
PN1997 .E688 1996
Three Days and a Child PJ054 .Y42 T54
Four Comedies by Ephraim Kishon (writer and director)
Sallah
PN1997 .S13 1989 DVD)
The Big Dig PN1997
.B496
Ervinka PN1997
.E6875 1999
Policeman PN1997
.P575 1999
Yiddish:
Green Fields
PN1997 .P462 1989
Der Purimshpieler: the Jester PN1997 .P85 1988
The Dybbuk
PJ5129 .R3 D82 1985 (DVD)
Yidl Mitn Fidl PN1997 .Y44
1988
Tevye
PJ 5129 ,R2 T3419 1990
Mamele (Little Mama) PN1997 .M258 1988
American:
Sunshine
PN1997 .S883 2001 (DVD)
A Stranger Among Us PN1997 .S7815 2003 (DVD)
Fiddler on the Roof PN1997 .F411 (VHS and DVD)
Hester Street PS3505 .A254 Y42
1984
The Frisco Kid PN1997 .F76 1990
The Jazz Singer PN1997 .J353 J3
Yentl
PJ5129 .S49 Y4 1989
Enemies: A Love Story PJ5129 .S515 E5 1990 (DVD)
The Magician of Lublin PJ5129 .S49 M413 1989
Brighton Beach Memoirs PS3537 .I663 B7
Crossing Delancy PS3569 .A516 C7 1989
School Ties PN1997 .S31355
1993
Hanna's War PN1997.H3 1988
The Imported Bridegroom PS3505 .A254 I46 1992
The Chosen PS3566.O69 C3
1983
Mel Brooks' History of the World Part 1
The Pawnbroker PN1997 .P374 1989
Israel:
Israel: A Nation is Born
DS126.5 .I776 1992 (5 tapes)
Jerusalem, Soul of a People DS109.9 .J45 1990
A Wall in Jerusalem DS126.5
.W35 1989
Yaacov Ben-Dov: Father of Hebrew Cinema TR849 .B43
Y3 1993
To Touch a City DS109 .T67
1996
Jerusalem: Between Heaven and Earth
DS109.9 .J455 1997
Searching for peace in the Middle East (DVD)
DS119.76 .S43 2006
Foundation for Middle East Peace, c2006
Jewish History:
Last Jews of Radauit (Song of Radauit)
DS135 .R72 L37 1987
The Dhimmis: To be a Jew in Arab Lands DS135 .A68
D45 1987
The Enchanted Travels of Benjamin of Tudela PN1997
.E628 1991
Jewish Communities in the Middle Ages
DS 124 .C65 1994
The Disputation: a theological debate between Christians and Jews
BM 535 .D52 1991
Image Before My Eyes DS135.P6
I4 1988
Acts of Faith: Jewish Civilization in Spain DS135
.S7 A29 1995
Toledo Judio: Museo Sefardi (on the Jews of medieval Toledo, in English)
DS135.S75 T6
Jewish communities of Kaifeng and Sana DS135.C5
J4 1995
Jewish communities of Fez and Salonica DS135.M8
J4 1995
Fliegel's Flight: a bird's-eye view of Jewish history
DS118 .F55 1988
The Jewish Historical Museum, Amsterdam DS135.N4
J49 1991
Jews in medieval Spain
DS135.S7 J4 1996
Hollywoodism: Jews, Movies, and the American Dream
PN1993.5.U65 J3 1998
Heritage: Civilization and the Jews (DVD) DS117 .H47 2001 (3 disks)
Contents: [1]. A people is born ; The power of the word ; The shaping of
traditions -- [2]. The crucible of Europe ; The search for deliverance ; Roads
from the ghetto -- [3]. The golden land ; Out of the ashes ; Into the future
Jewish Music and Art:
Legendary Voices: Cantors of Yesteryear
BM658.2 .L44 1991
From Toledo to Jerusalem
DS134 .F76 1990
In the Fiddler's House
M1850 .I5 1995
Jewish Music Heritage Library:
Ashkenaz
M1852 .A74 1993
Teiman (Yemen)
M1850 .T4 1993
Hassidut: the music of the Hassidic
community M1851 .H37 1988
Morocco
M1850.M67 1994
Sepharad: Judeo-Spanish
DS124 .S4 1993
One Day the Heart Opens: a concert
of Jewish ethnic music in Jerusalem M1850 .O66
1995
Toward Jerusalem: the music
of seven communities M1850 .T67 1995
Ofra Haza: From Sunset to Dawn
M1825.18 .Y4 H29 1988
From Exile to Exile: Art and Architecture
N7415 .T73 1987 (part 1B)
Shalom of Safed
ND979 .S47 S5 1988
Story of two synagogues
N7414.9.B4 S65 1994
Religious Life:
Roots and Wings: A Jewish Congregation (DVD)
BM700 .R66 1996
In Every Generation
BL65 .A85 S53 1987
Jewish Symbols DS113 .J4
1985
Hanukah
BM695 .H3 .H3
Lights
PN1997 .L461 1988
The Talmud and the Scholar
BM755 .S83 T3 1990
The Long Search: the "Chosen People" BL80.2 .L64
Tape 7
The Return (on Baalei Teshuvah)
BM198 .R4
In the Days of Ahasuerus
BS580 .E8 I5
In Her Own Time F869.L89
J5 1986
A Seal upon thy heart BM713 .S4 1992
A Life Apart: Hasidism in America (DVD)
BM198.4.U6 L53 1997
Holocaust:
The Garden of the Finzi-Continis [Italian]
PQ4807.A79 G513 1987
The Truce
PN1997 ,M3547 1998
Faith Amid the Flames D180
.J4 F53
The Jews of Poland
DS135 .P6 J47 1988
The Last Journey
DS135 .R92 L37 1987
Doublecrossing: the Voyage of the St. Louis D810.
J4 D68 1992
Shoa
D810 .J4 S4 (5 tapes)
Genocide D810 .J4 G45 1981
The Longest Hatred DS145
.L68
Shiv(176)a.
PN1997 .S389
The Diary of Anne Frank D810 .J4 F715 1984
QB VII
PN1995.9.J8 Q2 1984 (3 tapes)
Schindler's List PR9619.3.K46
S3 1994 (2 tapes)
Timewatch : out of the ashes
DS125 .T55 1996
Weapons of the spirit
DS135.F85 L435 1989
Les Violons du bal
PN1997 .V528 1992
Yiddish Language, Literature,
and Theater:
Yiddish: The Mame-Loshen
PJ5118.Y5 Y5 1988
Almonds and Raisins
PN1995.9.Y54 1988
Isaac Beshevis Singer: Champion of Yiddish Literature
PJ5129 .S49Z625 1991
The World of Sholom Aleichem
PJ129 .R2 A29
Selected Film Descriptions
Devarim (“Things”)
A film by Amos Gitai, who plays Goldman, cinematography by Renato Berta, based
on the great novel by Yaakov Shabtai titled “Past Continuous.” The plot begins
with a funeral, and becomes a meditation on death and the meaning of life. In
Tel Aviv, people prepare food, eat, make love, get pregnant, and die. The film’s
characters, dislocated from religion and nation, live lives of individual
freedom but disenchantment, drifting without meaning. . The film’s central
problem is expressed in the drunken ravings of Besh, who says, “Life’s a bitch
but it’s mesmerizing,” “We’re only temporary, all of us,” “If there was a God
in this city, maybe we’d have something but even the devil fled, leaving us here
with … a bunch of merchants who call themselves Jews… Damn this city!” “I feel
like shouting to this city, Pull yourself together!”
"Enemies, A Love Story"
With Anjelica Houston, Ron Silver, Lena Olin, Margaret Sophie Stein,
Alan King. Directed by Paul Mazursky, music by Maurice Jarre. In New York
City, 1949, Holocaust survivor and polygamist Herman Broder struggles with
conflicting memories, desires, and obligations, in this ironic comedy.
A screen adaptation of Isaac Bashevis Singer's novel. (1989, USA. Color.
121 min. R-rated.)
"Wondrous Oblivion"
[British] PN1997.2 .W65 2007 (DVD) written
and directed by Paul Morrison. Eleven-year-old David Wiseman lives with
the singular dream of being a cricket star. The son of a Jewish family,
German immigrants scarred by loss of family in the Holocaust, who live in a
racist and anti-semitic neighborhood of 1960s South London. David and his whole
family are transformed by the arrival of new neighbors, the Samuels, a lively
and big-hearted Jamaican family. Starring Delroy Lindo as Dennis Samuels
and Emily Woof as Mrs. Wiseman. (2003, 101 min.)
"Time of Favor "
PN1995 .T5274 2002 (DVD) Written and directed by Joseph Cedar, excellent score by Jonathan Bar-Giora.
Winner of six Israeli Academy Awards including Best Picture. "A taut
thriller about the tense relationship between the orthodox nationalists and the
military. Both a politico-psychological drama and a love story between a
passionate woman and two best friends." A highly respected soldier named
Menachem is also a pious Orthodox Jew and a devoted student of a charismatic
leader of a West Bank settlement, Rabbi Meltzer. Meltzer directs a
yeshivah, where he tells his students, all of them soldiers, that all Jewish
hearts must yearn for the Temple and the Messiah. Some students
interpret this as a call to blow up the Dome of the Rock. But the rabbi's
beautiful daughter, Michal, rejects all of his ideals (Settler and messianic) as
cruel and ego-centric. She wants to marry Menachem, but her father wants
her to marry his star Yeshivah student, Pinchas. The story becomes a tense
conflict involving the Mosad, messianic fervor, broken hearts, secret tunnels,
and Menachem's choice between love and Settler fanaticism. The film takes
a clear stand against the Orthodox Settler movement. In Hebrew with
English subtitles. (2000, 101 min.)
"Campfire" PN1995.9 .F67 C36
2004 (DVD) Written and directed also by Joseph Cedar, also with the
Zionist Settler Movement as the social setting and also challenging its ideology
(but less directly). "The film is set in 1981, immediately after the peace
treaty with Egypt and Israel’s subsequent withdrawal from the Sinai desert, the
events that provided much of the energy for the formation of the original
settlements. Recently widowed, Rachel Gerlick (Michaela Eshet) wants to move to
a new West Bank settlement. She thinks this will give her life meaning, and also
provide her teenage daughters, Esti and Tami (Maya Maron and Hani Furstenberg),
with a stable communal life. Motke (Assi Dayan), the group’s organizer,
however, is worried about admitting the women to such a tightly interdependent
community. He appears sincere in his religious convictions. There’s nothing
fanatical in his public persona, and yet in private conversations, it’s clear
that he would willingly sacrifice everyone around him in service to his cause.
Rachel’s ally in her struggle with Motke is Yossi (Moshe Ivgy), one of the
suitors Motke has lined up for her. Yossi is an older and more reflective
version of Menachem, the hero of “Time of Favor.” Like Menachem, Yossi is a
deeply sympathetic character, a man who observes without openly criticizing,
and who acts quietly but firmly. Both men are devout yet humanistic, open to
women’s needs and accepting of their emotions. " (films42.com) The occasion of
the "campfire" itself reveals an ugly violent side of the Orthodox Zionist youth
movement. At the heart of the film is the family drama involving Rachel
and her daughters. (2004, 96 min.)
"Left Luggage"
PT5881.16.R48 L44 2001 (DVD)
Director, Jeroen Krabbé, based on the
novel "The shovel and the loom" by Carl Friedman, performed by Isabella
Rossellini, Maximilian Schell, Laura Fraser, Jeroen Krabbé, Marianne Saegebrecht,
David Bradley, Adam Monty, Chaim Topol. Set
in Belgium in 1972, Chaja (Laura Fraser) is a rebellious philosophy student
whose parents are Holocaust survivors; her mother represses her memories and
her father is obsessed with finding the suitcases he buried during the war,
suitcases holding family albums and keepsakes, his former life. Needing money,
Chaja goes to work as a nanny for a Hasidic family with 5 children, one of them
a troubled 4-year old who doesn't speak. She feels repelled by Hasidic rules
but loves the little boy and determines to help him. As the film progresses, Chaja (and the viewers) come to respect and
sympathize with the Hasidic community, as well as see its faults (too passive
toward oppressors), and to understand Chaja's parents. Chaja gradually
embraces her own identity as a Jew and child of survivors, seeking her own "lost
luggage" with her father. Chaim Topol plays Mr. Appleschnitt, a kindly
Orthodox elder offering wise advice to Chaja. “Under
the deft direction of Jeroen Krabbe, this is a stunning, moving film with
wonderful, finely wrought performances by the entire cast. This film gem
certainly deserves a wider audience. It is about the power of love to transform
and transcend.” In English, a Flemish and Dutch production. (100
minutes)
"A Stranger Among Us" PN1997
.S7815 2003 (DVD)
Director: Sidney Lumet, written by Robert J. Avrech.
Cast: Melanie Griffith, John Pankow, Tracy Pollan, Lee Richardson, Mia Sara,
Jamey Sheridan, Eric Thal. "Emily Eden, a New York City detective, must go
undercover among Hasidic Jews to solve a puzzling murder." A surprisingly
detailed and sympathetic portrait of a Hasidic community and its
counter-cultural values. Conservative ideals of love and marriage,
and the compassion and caring of a warm community, overcome the cynicism and
self-hatred of the detective. (110 min, 1992)
"Passover Fever" (or Passover Knight) PN1995.9 .F7
P33 1995 (DVD)
Directed by Shemi Zarhin. Comedy/drama about three
generations of a modern Israeli family who convene to celebrate Passover.
Each of the four children and their spouses (each played by a famous Israeli
actor or actress) has a personal history of suffering and a love/hate
relationship with the grandparents (played by veteran actors Gila Almagor and
Yosef Shiloah), and behind much of the drama is the death of one of the sons in
a military training exercise. (100 min.,1995)
"The megilleh" (DVD)
Directed by Ilan Eldad, filmed in Israel in 1983, with English rhymed dialogue
and Yiddish-language songs (with English subtitles). The film is based on the
rhymed play “Songs of the Megilleh" by Itzik Manger (1901-1961), a Yiddish
writer from the same circle as Isaac B. Singer. In the film a Jewish tailor’s
village in Poland “which no longer exists” puts on a play enacting the Purim
story from the Book of Esther. Most of the film presents this play, in which
members of the village take on the roles of characters in story; we are mostly
watching the play, commented on by an outsider who also appears in various
minor roles. The tone is mostly silly and cheerful, with plenty of Yiddish
slapstick and sentimental songs, but the villain, Haman, is updated as a modern
anti-Semite. He is played as a cosmopolitan fascist with a power drill who
tries to destroy all the families of the loyal tailors’ guild. (86 min.)
"Trembling before G-d" (DVD) HQ75.15 .T74 2003
A documentary built around personal stories of gay and
lesbian Hasidic and Orthodox Jews. Portrays people who face a profound dilemma -
how to reconcile their passion for Judaism with the biblical prohibitions
against homosexuality. Includes interviews with closeted and out gay Orthodox
and Hasidic Jews, including the first openly gay Orthodox rabbis, Steven
Greenberg (2001, 84 min.)
"Ushpizin" (Succot Guests) (DVD) PN1997.2
.U84 2006
Light hearted, serious, ironic exploration of the meaning of absolute "faith" as
interpreted by the followers of the great Hasidic rabbi, Nahman of Bratslav,
written, acted, and directed (mostly) by Orthodox Jews. "Plot Synopsis: In
Jerusalem's orthodox neighborhoods, it's Succoth, seven days celebrating life's
essentials in a sukkah, a temporary shack of both deprivation and hospitality. A
devout couple, Moshe and Mali, married nearly five years and childless, are
broke and praying for a miracle. Being childless may force them, through Jewish
law, to divorce though they love each other. Suddenly, miracles abound: a
friend finds Moshe a sukkah he says is abandoned, Moshe is the beneficiary
of local charitable fundraising, and two escaped convicts arrive on Moshe and
Mali's doorstep in time to be their ushpizin - their guests. The miracles then
become trials. Rabbinical advice, absolution, an effort to avoid anger, and a
1000-shekel citron/etrog (supposed to promote fertility) figure in Moshe's dark
night of the soul." (2004, 92 min.)
"Only Human"
(DVD) PN1995.9.C55 O559 2006
"Written and directed by the husband-and-wife team of Dominic Harari and Teresa
De Pelegrí, this Spanish film mines the comic possibilities of the classic setup
of introducing the fiancé to the family, with results that are playful, charming
and surprisingly thoughtful. Rafi (played by Guillermo Toledo) is a professor of
Arabic Literature at a Spanish university and, though a bit of a nerd, just the
kind of man that rising television personality Leni (Marián Aguilera)
should want to bring home. Except that her family is Jewish and Rafi is
Palestinian." Political and religious bias, fear, and resentment between
Muslim Palestinians and Jews cause some of the conflict and are the text for an
all-out heated argument between Rafi and Leni near the end of the film.
(2006, 85 min., Spanish with English subtitles)
"My Michael"
Dramatization of the novel by Amos Oz. In Jerusalem of the 1950's,
Hanna, married to a mild-mannered geology professor named Michael, feels
lonely and empty, and fantasizes romantic love and violence. "Its depiction
of a shut-in, obsessed marriage is a vehicle for exploring the fenced-in
quality of Israeli society"--NY Times. (1975, Israel. Color. Hebrew with
subtitles. 95 min.)
"They Were Ten"
The first feature-length film made by Israelis. It presents the central
Zionist "myth" through a story of ten Russian Jews trying to establish
a settlement in 19th-century Palestine. Their difficulties are many--arid
land, discouragement, quarreling, inexperience with farming, initial hostility
of Arab neighbors. The final scene is of death and hopeful rebirth in a
fertile land shared by Jews and Arabs. (1961, Israel. B&W. Hebrew with
subtitles. 105 min.)
"Summer of Aviya"
Ten-year-old Aviya has lived in orphanages most of her life because her
mother, Henya, has spent much of this time in a mental hospital. In the
film Henya, played by the famous actress Gila Almagor, takes Aviya home
to live with her, but we see Henya struggling against her memories of Nazi
Europe, where she fought as a partisan against the Nazis before being captured
and placed in a concentration camp. The film's plot revolves around Aviya's
attempt to discover her father alive, during the summer of the first year
of Israel's independence, when many refugees were streaming into the new
state. The story is based on the life of Almagor herself, who wrote and
produced the film, and starsin it as her own mother. Directed by Eli
Cohen. Winner of the Silver Bear award, Berlin Film Festival, and of three
Silver Menorah Awards in Israel. (1989, Israel. Color. Hebrew with subtitles.
96 min.)
"Sallah"
A comedy written and directed by Ephraim Kishon, the famous Israeli humorist.
The film follows the exploits of Sallah (played by the actor Haim Topol),
a new immigrant to Israel from Yemen, as he struggles to escape the ramshackle
transit camp into which the government places him and his large family.
While the film has some slapstick fun with Sallah, its main object of satire
is the Western Jews who run the country: Israeli bureaucrats, Israeli elections,
American Jews who give money to plant trees in Israel, Jewish American
tourists, and especially the kibbutz, with its claim to a way of life that
is more humane and egalitarian than that of others. Sallah makes complete
fools of them all! "Sallah is fun! ... warm of heart, shrewd of head, and
rascally to the core" (New York Herald Tribune). Starring Topol, Gila Almagor
(when much younger than in "Aviya"), Arik Einstein, and Geula Noni. Academy
Award nominee for Best Foreign Film, 1965. (1965, Israel. B&W. Hebrew
with subtitles. 105 min.)
"Fictitious Marriage"
Piercing farce about the tensions of life in contemporary Israel. After
serving as a reserve soldier (presumably patrolling occupied Palestinian
cities), a Jerusalem school teacher named Eldad Ilan has an identity crisis
and leaves his family, ending up at the "California Hotel" in Tel Aviv.
Mistaken in a park for an Arab, he joins a group of lively good-hearted
Arab workers building a house in a Tel Aviv suburb, while in the evenings
he enters a "fictitious marriage" with the attractive hotel clerk. In an
early scene, an Israeli Jew in the park tells him that Israel is a "land
of blood" and that he keeps his sanity by doing the simple, regular things
day by day. Eldad's fictitious relationships represent a rebellion against
the daily pain and unresolved crisis of this "bloody land." Watch for the
symbolism of learning to squat while eating (with the hopeful image at
the end). Directed by Haim Bouzaglo. (1988, Israel. Color. Hebrew with
subtitles. 90 min.)
"Siege"
With some famous Israeli movie stars. Tamar is an Israeli woman who
loses her husband during the Six Day War of 1967. Her husband's friends
do not want his memory to be forgotten, but Tamar, living with her young
son, tries to break away from the past and form new relationships. "A deeply
moving film . . . an unusually effective call for peace"--Chicago Sun-Times
(1970, Israel. B&W. Hebrew with subtitles. 95 min.)
"The Dybbuk"
Based on S. Ansky's popular Yiddish play about love, broken promises, and
exorcism. Khonnon and Leah, betrothed by their parents from before their
birth, are barred from marriage. Khonnon, an adept of the magical satanic
side of Kabbalah, dies of sorrow and returns as a dybbuk to possess Leah
as she is about to marry another. This is one of the classic Yiddish films
produced in Poland--dramatic and ambitious. "A motion picture of spellbinding
strangeness and extraordinary distinction"--International Herald-Tribune.
(1937, Poland. B&W. Yiddish with English subtitles [difficult to read
sometimes]. 110 min.)
"Genocide"
Written by Martin Gilbert, narrated by Orson Welles, dramatic readings
by Elizabeth Taylor from letters and memoirs; music composed by Elmer Bernstein.
With footage from news-film and Nazi documentaries, and many photographs
of the time, Genocide recounts the destruction of Europe's Jews, showing
the earlier rise of political anti-semitism and the context of political
events during World War II. Includes original drawings, image collages,
and an animated sequence accompanying a poem, "I Never Saw Another Butterfly."
Winner of the 1982 Academy Award for Best Feature-Length Documentary. Plausibly
the best Holocaust documentary around, the one to see if you see no other.
(1982, USA. Color. 83 min.)
"Flames in the Ashes"
Using testimony of eyewitnesses and recently discovered film, this
video explores the many ways by which Jews resisted the Nazis before and
during the War. (90 mins. B&W. Hebrew/Yiddish w/subtitles)
"Faith
Amid the Flames" How did religious Jews caught in ghettos and the camps
respond? This film focuses on Jewish resistance through acts of devotion
to a religious tradition scorned by the Nazis. (Color. 40 mins.)
"I Love You Rosa"
With Michal Bat-Adam, Gabi Otterman, Yossef Shiloah. According to the law
of levirate marriage found in Deuteronomy, a widow must marry the younger
brother of her dead husband unless that brother refuses. In this film,
Rosa, a 20-year old childless widow, marries her 11-year old brother-in-law.
Their relationship develops, over the ten years seen here, from one of
guardian-and-child to that of husband-and-wife. Set in 19th-century Jerusalem,
this story is based on the life of the mother of Moshe Mizrahi, the film's
director and writer. (1972. Color. Hebrew w/English subtitles. 90 min.)
"Hester Street"
With Carol Kane, Steven Keats, et. al. Written and directed by Joan Silver,
based on a short story by the Jewish-American
writer, Abraham Cahan. Portrait of Russian-Jewish immigrants settling in
New York in the 1890's and the problems of adapting traditional customs
to a new setting. The story: Gitl (Kane), joining her husband who has preceded
her to New York, finds that he is in love with a "modern" American woman
and no longer wants her. The film ends with a clever and satisfying solution.
(1974, USA. Color. 90 minutes.)
"Fiddler on the Roof"
With Hayim Topol (as Tevye), Norma Crane, Leonard Frey, Molly Picon (as
the matchmaker) et. al. A Musical comedy by Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick,
based on the stories of the Yiddish humorist, Scholem Aleichem. In pre-revolutionary
Anatevka, a shtetl in the Ukraine, Jewish life has the beauty and precariousness
of a fiddler on the roof. Tevye, the poor milkman, finds his traditions
challenged as his daughters marry. Many aspects of Jewish life in the shtetls
are portrayed but mainly (I suggest) as a life Jews left to come to America.
(1971, USA. Color. 3 hours.)
"A Woman Called Golda"
Ingrid Bergman's portrayal of Golda Meir (Bergman's last performance) earned
her the 1981-82 Emmy Award; the production itself received an Emmy for
Outstanding Drama Special. Also with Ned Beatty, Anne Jackson, Leonard
Nemoy, et. al. Music composed by Michel Legrand. This "docudrama" depicts
the life of Golda Meir, from her frightening childhood in Russia and her
new home in America, focusing on her emigration to Palestine, her work
in a Kibbutz and as a leader of the Labor Party, until eventually being
elected Israel's Prime Minister, and concludes with her meeting with Egyptian
president Anwar Sadat. Her relationship with her husband (Nemoy) casts
a sad shadow to her brilliant and influential life. (1982, USA. Color.
192 min.)
"The Magician of Lublin"
With Alan Arkin, Lou Jacobi, Valerie Perrine, Shelley Winters, Louise
Fletcher. Directed by Menahem Golan, music by Maurice Jarre. In Poland,
1901, a Jewish magician and womanizer tries to juggle the many people,
promises, and dreams of his life. Based rather loosely on the novel by
I.B.Singer. (1979, USA. Color. 105 min. R-rated.)
"A Life Apart: Hasidism in America"
A film by Menachem Daum and Oren Rudavsky, narrated by
Leonard Nimoy and Sarah Jessica Parker, 1997.
"In this extraordinarily intimate film, seven years in the making, we are taken
into the depths of the Hasidim's joyous, sometimes harsh, and often-beautiful
world. From mystical tales to mesmerizing music, Rebbes to Holocaust survivors,
A Life Apart reveals a strange, insular world few outsiders have seen,
and fewer yet could imagine." (95 min.)
"Roots and Wings: a Jewish
Congregation"
A presentation of Maryknoll fathers and brothers, Producer and narrator, Bill
Grimm, 1996. Scenes of religious ritual inside the synagogue of a
Conservative congregation in Maryland and in the homes of members of the
congregation, together with interviews with rabbis and congregants about the
meaning of Judaism and how they try to live Jewish lives amid the competing
forces of American culture. (29 min.)
"Sunshine"
a film by István Szabó ; screenplay by István Szabó and Israel Horovitz ;
produced by Robert Lantos and Andras Hamori ; directed by István Szabó [2001]
Many of these videotapes were purchased through the Max and Silvia Weinstein
Memorial Fund for Judaic Studies at Washington and Lee