Fact and Fiction: Beit Avi Chai launches film series

February 9, 2010 - 5:30 PM by · 1 Comment
Filed under: Movies, Religion 

Beit Avi Chai has launched a fascinating new lecture series at its Jerusalem headquarters. The program is called “Fact and Fiction: Diversity Within” and features documentary films followed by one-on-one discussions between the film director and Amy Kronish, a long-time movie maestro and critic who’s put together the series.

Last night was the opening session and it featured “The Name My Mother Gave Me,” a tearjerker of the Zionist kind. A group of Ethiopian and Russian pre-army teenagers undertake an emotional journey to Addis Ababa and Gondar to explore the Jewish roots of the most recent immigrants to Israel.

In the course of the trip, the Ethiopians visit villages they haven’t seen in a dozen or so years and the Russians gain an appreciation for the Ethiopians’ Jewish history. “Don’t let anyone tell you there were no Jews here” in Ethiopia, one of the Russian teens declares. By the end of the film, these two groups – who were once was at each other’s throats – became a single bonded unit.

The most emotional moments of the film were when the group visits an abandoned synagogue in a remote village that still has Hebrew prayer books, and the meeting of one of the Ethiopians with his mother who he’s been separated from for 14 years. The moment is heartbreaking, however, as the mother shows little interest in her son who has come so far for such a bittersweet reunion.

The film’s director Eli Tal-El described afterward how difficult it was to make the film. Israel Television said they’d pay him for his footage but only to use it as part of a muckraking documentary on the state of Ethiopian immigration in Israel. Tal-El refused. It took him some five years to finish the work and only then when Beit Avi Chai stepped in at the last moment with some long overdue funding.

“The Name My Mother Gave Me” has played at film festivals around the world. A trailer is streaming online; you can also purchase the movie at the same site for $29.90.

Future sessions of the film series will look at Israeli development towns, ultra Orthodox women entering the workforce and the “secret” of Russian aliyah success. More information at www.bac.org.il.

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Religious ruptures

November 15, 2009 - 5:28 PM by · 4 Comments
Filed under: Art, General, History and Culture, Israeliness, Life, Religion 

Ultra Orthodox demonstrators rioting against the opening of a parking lot on Shabbat. (Photo credit: Menahem Kahana/AFP/Getty Images)

Ultra Orthodox demonstrators rioting against the opening of a parking lot on Shabbat. (Photo credit: Menahem Kahana/AFP/Getty Images)

With Jerusalem debating the efficacies and realities of the city’s haredim rioting against the opening of the Intel factory on Shabbat, talk at the water cooler on this first day of the work week revolved around this latest turn in the Shabbat riots.

The riots were reportedly peaceful, but as one coworker of mine commented, “How peaceful is it to head to a riot after shul on Shabbat?”

Can’t argue with that. I personally like to head home for some whisky and olives on Shabbat afternoon.

According to a survey taken by Hiddush, an NGO promoting religious freedom and equality in Israel (and headed by Rabbi/lawyer Uri Regev, who used to head the Reform movement in Israel), 76 percent of Jewish Israelis – and 93% of secular Israelis – believe haredi rabbis are spearheading religion-inspired conflicts in an effort to advance partisan haredi interests, and only 24% of the 500 polled believe that recent riots are inspired by love of Israel and the wellbeing of society.

This isn’t the first time that an Intel factory in Israel is working on Shabbat, but it is a newly revamped Jerusalem Intel plant that is manufacturing a certain kind of chip, which requires non-stop production. Given that Jerusalem is a city lacking jobs and industry, the presence of Intel is a boon, and one that clearly, no one wants to lose. At the same time, it’s not too pleasant dealing with religious hatred on a regular basis.

And so, against this background, I happened to end up at the Haredim photography exhibit in Beit Avi Chai, originally shown at the Eretz Israel Museum, with photos by Menahem Kahana of Haredim in all walks and situations of life, from synagogue rituals and family gatherings to celebrations, funerals and yes, demonstrations, from over the last ten years.

The curator is Alex Levac, winner of the Israel Prize for photography. Worth seeing and thinking about.

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