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Subjects
Films by Subject
Jewish Studies
71 film(s) found
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This documentary on Schindler, the wartime rescuer of 1200 Jews, grapples with the moral ambiguity of a flawed hero. more »
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This investigative film shows in detail the roles played by the international banking clique, including American banks, in collaborating with the Nazis during World War II. more »
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The recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, Peres has been the leading Israeli spokesman for a negotiated peace with the Palestinians. He exemplifies the challenge of unifying a divided Israel, split on the issue of peace and security. Rare archival film and exclusive interviews are used. more »
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Seventeen year-old Adina Scheim from Toronto is becoming a boy named Ayden. Her father, a conservative rabbi, has a hard time dealing with this transformation. more »
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A vibrant portrait of pluralistic 21st-century Jewish identities across the globe which concludes "Judaism has no color." more »
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This engaging, often funny documentary film chronicles the adventures of an enterprising 23-year-old named Aaron Lansky, who rallied together an international network of volunteers and set out to rescue the world¹s Yiddish books. more »
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This remarkable film retraces the life and work of the beloved artist Marc Chagall. Much of the narrative is told in his own words, drawn from his autobiography, interspersed with unique film footage of Chagall being interviewed as he paints. more »
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Filmmaker Marc Radomsky is third generation South African. His grandfather emigrated from Lithuania to escape pogroms. The family established their roots in Johannesburg and prospered. However Marc and his wife see that growing lawlessness and crime in post-Apartheid South Africa has driven the white community into gated communities where armed guards, attack dogs and barbed wire are the brutal signs of the need for increased security. more »
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This dazzling Academy Award nominee tells the story of a Lithuanian immigrant, who left the shtetl to escape the virulent anti-Semitism there and became a recognized painter in the New World. The film captures his artwork by using innovative animation techniques. more »
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A small core of reservists in the Israeli army have refused to serve in Gaza and the West Bank, on moral grounds. more »
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During World War II, Nazi forces attempted—and largely failed—to impose their Final Solution across Denmark, as more than 95 percent of the country's Jewish population survived the war. The Danish Solution details how so many Jews managed to escape the Nazi blueprint for their extermination. more »
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In 1941 a German soldier illegally photographed the doomed inhabitants of the Warsaw Ghetto These images form the core of this film, an extraordinary portrayal of humanity in a nightmare situation. more »
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A sympathetic and lyrical portrait of the Orthodox Jews of New York City, filmed as they observe the most important holidays of the year with prayer, song, ecstatic dancing and celebration, which speak to the history and meaning of their customs. more »
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An illuminating portrayal of a vanishing world -- the largely rural region of the Mississippi delta which has been home to a thriving Jewish community for over a century. Jews became an integral part of delta life, forging a hybrid identity that was deeply Jewish and distinctively Southern. more »
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A startling film which examines in detail how the French authorities arrested and interned more than 74,000 Jews before sending them to Auschwitz, which only 2,500 survived. more »
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This colorful, lively documentary depicts the various sects of Hasidism which embody "D'vekut" in Israel. more »
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Two young soldiers, an Israeli and an Arab, encounter each other, fire their weapons; both are wounded. Using this as a starting point, the film explores the contrasting lives of the young men, giving a close-up, human view of the gulf separating them. more »
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This film seeks out traces of the once thriving world of the Jewish community in western Ukraine. Before WW II a rich culture with Jewish music abounding and a thriving Yiddish threater existed there. The film weaves the words of writers such as Isaak Babel, Martin Buber and others, with the experiences of those still living. more »
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In this profoundly touching, intergenerational documentary, a charismatic Holocaust survivor inspires her family to connect to relatives they could never meet. Focusing on her brother Kalman, Anna recounts tales of a mischievous boy who tried to escape the Warsaw ghetto with her. more »
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This riveting film recounts the true story of a young Hungarian Jew and her sisters interned in Auschwitz, their struggle to survive and their daring escape from a death march. Based on a Pulitzer Prize-nominated book by Isabella Leitner. more »
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In Russia, the freedom unleashed by Glasnost, Gorbachev and Yeltsin has included the freedom to hate. This film looks at this new form of anti-Semitism and includes secretly shot footage of the nationalist movement "Pamyat" and other hate groups against their traditional Jewish scapegoats. more »
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This landmark film is the first film to show the revolutionary social experiment, the attempt to create sexual equality between men and women on the Israeli kibbutz. Through archival footage and interviews with several generations, the film follows the evolution of family life and work roles from pioneering days to the present. more »
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This wide ranging documentary travels from Berlin to Harlem to the Middle East and Australia to investigate the connection beween the hatred that leads to mass violence and the hatred we all feel from time to time. more »
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This film is the record of these meetings of the Geneva Initiative that succeeded in bringing Israelis and Palestinians to the negotiating table in order to discussion a peaceful solution to their conflict. more »
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In this powerful film about Jewish ritual circumcision of infant sons, the possible aftereffects are revealed. It was directed by a concerned Jewish parent. more »
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This film focuses on a group from a Jewish congregation in New Jersey who journey to eastern Europe in search of their Jewish past. The impact is more searing than they anticipated. more »
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This film examines the dramatic surge of interest among American Jews in the spiritual teachings of Buddhism. Jews, who make up 2% of the population, account for some 30% of non-Asian American Buddhists. more »
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Largely forgotten by the rest of the world, Iran is home to the largest Jewish population in the Middle East outside of Israel. After the revolution in 1979, a majority of the Jews fled, many to the United States, but 25,000 still remain. This provides insight into what life is like for them now in Iran. more »
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This lively film incorporates Yiddish theatre, song, dance and the history of Yiddish, a language that was once spoken by 11 million people. It demonstrates how language and cultural identity are intertwined. more »
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An African American who is Jewish sings gospel and chants Tora bridging races and traditions. more »
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This upbeat, often humorous film presents three busy mohels -- Jewish ritual circumcisers -- as they practice their ancient profession in modern Los Angeles. It also shows how the ritual is an occasion for celebration and how Jews express their identity, faith and family ties, in these early moments of life. more »
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In 1800 South Carolina was home to the largest and wealthiest Jewish community in North America. This lively documentary traces their history from colonial days until the present time, showing how they maintained both their southern and Jewish identities. more »
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Novelist, filmmaker and Cornell physics professor Robert Lieberman, an Americanized child of Holocaust survivors, revisits Kew Gardens, which in the 1940's and 50's was an immigrant "village" a few subway stops from the heart of New York City. more »
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This poignant film captures the ironies of the ritualized mating game played at the five Singles' Weekends held each year at the Concord Hotel in the Catskills. more »
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The film is a vivid character study of a strong minded lady in her declining years, confused between reality and delusions. more »
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First-hand accounts of the pioneering women who settled the Israeli kibbutz. more »
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Stories from a Jewish Home. This film examines the implications of caring for the aging survivors of the Holocaust as they face death and isolation for the second time. more »
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The Longing, set in Ecuador, tells the story of a group of ”conversos" attempting to regain their birthright. Their ancestors Spanish Jews were forced to convert during the Inquisition. more »
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Victoria, a young Argentine woman, set out to find the truth about her parents who disappeared in 1978 during the military dictatorship. Painful questions emerge: were her parents terrorists? Did they suffer more because they were Jewish? more »
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This charming documentary depicts the social space of a kosher Middle Eastern grocery store in the traditionally Sephardic section of Brooklyn, with customers speaking Hebrew, English, Syrian and Egyptian Arabic as well as other languages. more »
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This multi-award-winning film tells the story of a disguised Jewish orphan who, ironically, became a poster boy for the Nazis more »
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Filmmaker Kate Feiffer was six years old when her father told her she was Jewish. Since she celebrated Christmas and never attended synagogue, this information came as a surprise. In Matzo & Mistletoe, Feiffer interviews a fascinating cast of characters, and uses archival footage, illustration, and clips from television shows and movies to ponder the paradox of American secular Judaism. more »
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Why did the U.S. and Britain ignore the devastating reports about Nazi atrocities during World War II? Anti-Semitism was common at that time both in the U.S. and in Europe and among high officials of the State Department. more »
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Jewish feminists are creating new rituals to celebrate Jewish holidays like Passover, demonstrating how traditions can be updated to make women full participants. more »
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From 1942 to 1944, nearly twenty-five thousand Jewish men, women, and children were deported from Belgium to Auschwitz. Fewer than fifteen hundred survived. This film raises and systematically answers the question: How did just a handful of Nazis, with the help—voluntary or unwitting—of the Belgian authorities, bring about their destruction? more »
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This affectionate, nostalgic film recalls the Jewish family resorts that flourished in the 1930's and '40's. Built in response to restrictive policies that excluded Jews from established resorts, Monteith Inn enabled a Jewish clientele to experience the fun of a vacation in the country. This is the real story behind the Hollywood film "Dirty Dancing". more »
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The filmmaker comes from a troubled Viennese Jewish family dislocated by the Nazis. Memories of her American childhood recur, when her emotionally ill brother bullied her mercilessly and terrible secrets were kept from her. more »
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Meitner was a brilliant Jewish physicist from Vienna who had to flee Berlin in 1938 after working at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute. Together with her close friend and colleague, Otto Hahn, they developed the theory of nuclear fission. Yet after the war she was overlooked by the Nobel Prize Committee who awarded the prize to Hahn alone. more »
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In the midst of the simmering animosity between the Israelis and Arabs, there are voices for peace rarely heard by the outside world. While extremists on both sides still prefer the hard line and the spilling of blood, these voices of peace are having an influence on Israel's future. more »
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This dramatized documentary drawn verbatim from testimony examines the painful story of the only known Jew to be lynched in America. Originally from New York, Leo Frank was the manager of a pencil factory in Atlanta in 1913, when he was falsely accused and convicted in the rape and murder of a worker. more »
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During the Nazi years, some 17,000 European Jews fled to Shanghai, where no visa was required. Juxtaposing interviews with survivors with archival photographs, this film recounts the days when Jews lived in China under Japanese rule and Shanghai became a place of refuge. more »
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Eloquent and witty, 92-year-old Andree 'Poumy' Moreuil reflects on her adventures when, as a young Jewish mother, she joined the wartime resistance in France. Acting against oppression helped her transcend isolation and fear. more »
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Two cameramen, one Israeli and one a Palestinian, cover the Arab/Israeli conflict and find that their presence affects the events they cover. Battles and rhetoric heat up when the camera rolls Though working from opposite sides, the men have become friends and recognize their moral dilemma in reporting the news. more »
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Jews have a long history in India. Although only a handful remain, they maintain their traditions. more »
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Searching for Wallenberg tells the legendary story of Raoul Wallenberg, who as a Swedish diplomat in Budapest in 1944, saved tens of thousands of Jews from Nazi deportations and certain death. He accomplished this through intimidation, manipulation and sheer courage. more »
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Father Patrick Desbois, a French Catholic priest, was haunted by his grandfather's stories about the extermination carried out by the Einsatzgruppen firing squads in the Ukraine between 1941 and 1944. He relentlessly searches for the truth about the murder of one and a half million Ukrainian Jews. more »
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Sholem Aleichem: Laughing in the Darkness is a riveting portrait of writer Sholem Aleichem, whose stories became the basis of the Broadway musical Fiddler on the Roof. It tells the tale of the rebellious wordsmith who created a new genre of literature and used his remarkable humor to encapsulate the realities of the Eastern European Jewish world in the late nineteenth century. more »
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This haunting animation film captures the surreal world of a child survivor of Teresienstadt concentration camp whose pain had not been recognized or shared. At twenty, she was given letters written by her mother and finally had a bridge to the past, but it took many more for her to break the silence. more »
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Providing rare insight into the obstacles to peace between Israelis and Palestinians, this film records seven Israeli professionals working in the field of human rights in the Israeli occupied territories. more »
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Amidst the seething conflict between Israel and Palestine, a young Palestinian journalist and an older Israeli editor try to negotiate their own peace. Each of them had their own bitter memories. Muna had been expelled from the land of her birth. Chaim had lost a son in the Six Day War. No reconciliation results but out of this meeting comes a mutual compassion. more »
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This charming film documents the life of a 94-year-old Hungarian born artist who used his artistic skills to survive the Holocaust. more »
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In the early 1990’s there were two catastrophic attacks against Jews in Buenos Aires. A car bomb blew up the Israeli Embassy, and a powerful bomb destroyed a Jewish community center. No one has been successfully prosecuted. more »
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For three years journalist Michael Schmidt played a dangerous double game, insinuating himself into the inner circle of German neo-Nazis. The result is a disturbing documentary of racial and and religious hatred being bred into a new generation more »
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One does not usually associate the word 'love' with the Holocaust. Yet this tender documentary relates how love did surface, against all odds, in the DP camps after World War II. These tales of love blossoming in such unlikely circumstances is artfully captured on film by Helene Klodawsky, the noted documentarian whose own parents are part of the story. more »
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Where Birds Don’t Sing chronicles the horrifying stories of two concentration camps in the Third Reich, Ravensbruck and Sachsenhausen, and ends with a moving reunion of the survivors. more »
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The terrible anti-Semitic massacre that occured on July 4, 1946 in Kielce, Poland is chillingly retold by the Polish people who were there. Some express horror but others seem indifferent. A miniature Shoah in its power to move audiences. more »
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Focusing on war-torn areas of the world, this inspiring program profiles women living with the day-to-day tragedy of war. Part I begins in Israel and moves to Northern Ireland where we meet Nobel Peace Prize winner Meiread Corrigan who formed Peace People. Part II is dedicated to the women of El Salvador, working for the popular front movements for a more just society, and moves to the U.S. where women are fighting to reclaim their neighborhoods from crime. more »
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Part I begins in Israel, where the Palestinian uprising has escalated the conflict between Jews and Arabs. It shows women on both sides willing to bear arms but also involved in the peace-making process.
In Northern Ireland we meet Nobel Peace Prize winner Mairead Corrigan. She, along with Betty Williams, have formed Peace People, a ground-breaking movement for ending violence in that country. more »
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This charming film documents the revival and popularity of Yiddish music in today's Europe. It is now considered "world music" and has become the passion of a new generation of artists both Jewish and non-Jewish. more »
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This charming film documents the revival and popularity of Yiddish music in today's Europe. It is now considered "world music" and has become the passion of a new generation of artists both Jewish and non-Jewish. more »
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The tragic story of the efforts of a Polish Jewish official to warn the world of the Nazi horrors in Poland. more »
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